SpeechFAMILY COURT (FAMILY COURT ASSOCIATES) LEGISLATION BILLFirst ReadingHon KIRITAPU ALLAN (Minister of Justice): I present a legislative statement on the Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Ian McKelvie): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website. Hon KIRITAPU ALLAN: I move That the Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Justice Committee to consider the bill.The family justice system supports children parents and whānau through significant times in their lives. An accessible Family Court that operates without undue delay is core to a fully functioning family justice system. In 2019 the independent panel examining the 2014 reforms to the family justice system reported that the family justice system is not performing as it should. In particular the panel found that delay is widespread in the Family Court. This delay impacts on most other areas of the family justice system. The Family Court deals with a diverse set of issues including the care and protection of children family violence divorce and relationship property. The effective delays in the Family Court can therefore be widespread.Confidence in the Family Court system is undermined if people cannot effectively access the Family Court in a timely manner. Protracted proceedings can exacerbate parent family and whānau conflict. This is particularly harmful to children. Children's sense of time is slower than adults and protracted proceedings can amount to a substantial proportion of a young child's life. In care of children proceedings delay can mean that the children do not have contact with non-custodial whānau for significant periods of time. This can cause the relationship to disintegrate and be detrimental to the child and to whānau wellbeing. For victims of family violence who may find court processes re-traumatising court delay can also exacerbate or prolong their trauma. The Government is committed to addressing these barriers to justice in the Family Court. This bill will form just one part of a long-term programme of change in the Family Court. In 2020 the Government began its first phase of reform based on the panel's recommendations aimed at better supporting families and whānau through the family justice system. The reforms included the reinstatement of legal representation in the early stages of Care of Children Act proceedings; improved information for children parents and whānau; the establishment of Kaiārahi Family Court navigators to help parents and whānau navigate the system; and increased remuneration for lawyers for children to incentivise the recruitment and retention of skilled practitioners. The purpose of the Family Court (Family Court Associates) Legislation Bill responds to a particular issue identified by the independent panel which is that the high administrative workload of judges contributes to delay. The panel recommended a new position be established in the court to take on some of the judges' workload. In response to this recommendation the bill establishes a new role in the Family Court: the Family Court Associate. Establishing the Family Court Associate role is intended to improve outcomes for people participating in Family Court proceedings—particularly children—by making more effective use of judge time and reducing delay. The Family Court Associate will be a judicial officer. A judicial officer is a statutory role with independence from the executive. As a judicial officer the Family Court Associate can take on tasks currently performed by a registrar. They can also take on some judicial work that does not require a judge's expertise or experience but could not be done by a court officer such as a registrar.I expect highly experienced family lawyers will be appointed to the role. They will have jurisdiction over matters including those relating to care of children child support Oranga Tamariki and family violence. They will have the power to deal with a range of areas including directing parties to undertake dispute resolution and non-violence services presiding over pre-hearing conferences convening settlement conferences and making orders by consent under specified legislation. The Family Court Associates will spend the majority of their time doing work on the papers but will also be in court for some matters including for convening settlement conferences. However the role is distinct from a Family Court judge. There are some matters dealt with in the Family Court that will always remain with judges due to their impact on people or their complexity. These types of matters include the final decisions about guardianship and those that materially affect children.We want Family Court judges to be able to concentrate on progressing cases—which can be incredibly traumatic for children—through the court instead of on time-consuming administrative matters. The Family Court Associate role will help them to do just that. I want to acknowledge the panel for their report on the 2014 family justice system reforms which has informed the creation of the Family Court Associate role. I also want to acknowledge the judiciary the New Zealand Law Society and the Remuneration Authority for providing comments on an exposure draft of the bill. These comments have certainly been very helpful in refining the bill. The public will have the opportunity to share their views on the bill at select committee and I look forward to the Justice Committee's consideration of the bill. To enable the Family Court Associates to become operational as soon as possible I am proposing that the Justice Committee report on the bill to the House after four months. The establishment of the Family Court Associate is one part of the long-term programme of change to the family justice system. I commend this bill to the House.