Newman Muriel: General Debates 
Newman Muriel: General Debates 
[Volume:609;Page:6350] 
Dr MURIEL NEWMAN (ACT NZ) 
: 
 Three years ago the ACT party started a campaign to open up the Family Court. It was driven by the recognition that family breakdown was leading to increased fatherlessness in New Zealand and that the fall-out was increasing levels of child abuse teenage pregnancy youth crime and substance abuse amongst young people. The ACT party realises that children who are not brought up with both their mother and their father in their lives end up suffering more poor consequences in life than anyone else. But because of the Family Court most New Zealanders do not understand how bad the problem is. The Family Court operates like a secret society. It denies people the right to have their say about what has happened to them. It denies the media the right to report on what is actually going on. We urgently need to model New Zealand’s Family Court on that of Australia. I will read from the Australian Family Court website: “The privacy of people who come before the Family Court is protected by the law. That means that while court hearings are generally open to the public the media cannot use the names of people involved when reporting a case. The judge has the right to lift that restriction on a case-by-case basis.” 
I say that in New Zealand we have a justice system that colludes with feminist lawmakers. It prevents good New Zealanders from understanding what is going on. We have a secret system that is denying New Zealanders their proper rights to open justice. 
Just this week a spokeswoman for the Australian Prime Minister stated that he was mindful of the need for male role models for children and the desire for both parents to have continuing responsibility for their upbringing. The Australian Prime Minister will push for shared parenting in Australian law. The reason he is doing that is that Australians know what is happening with family breakdown in their country because they have an open Family Court. It is about time that New Zealand’s Family Court was modelled on that of Australia’s. If it were we would not have situations like the Family Court judge who denied a 10-year-old girl her annual beach holiday with her family because he wanted to punish the father by denying him the opportunity to be with his daughter at the beach. The judge said it was in the best interests of the child and stated that it was a mere 5 days in that child’s life. To stop a child sharing her summer holiday with her father is punishing that child. That judge would not be allowed to get away with that if the Family Court were open. 
New Zealanders are getting sick and tired of a Family Court that is hiding behind closed doors. We are sick and tired of headlines like “Father in court over Christmas card” and “Dad convicted for sending present to his daughter”. Those things should never be allowed to happen. This country needs a proper independent review of the Family Court—not the politically correct Law Commission type of review but a proper independent inquiry that looks at where New Zealand’s Family Court is now where the open Family Court of Australia is sitting and puts down a step-by-step process to take us from one to the other. 
The Family Court is denying children in this country their right to be with their fathers and their grandparents. It is long past time that we grew up and realised that dads are important in children’s lives and an open Family Court would be a step in that direction. As I said I hope members of the Opposition will join in the call for an independent inquiry into the Family Court. I would be happy to work with all of them.