Calling for Inquiry to Focus in on Courts

By Janet Fife-Yeomans
Daily Telegraph
April 25, 2013

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/calling-for-inquiry-to-focus-in-on-courts/story-e6freuy9-1226629596902

CHILDREN will remain at risk unless the royal commission into institutionalised child sex abuse includes the Family Court in its investigations, Bravehearts founder Hetty Johnston has warned.

Ms Johnston said it would be a missed opportunity if the court was not included.

"Thousands of children and their families are depending on it," she said yesterday.

In a submission sent by Bravehearts to the royal commission, the organisation said improvements to practices, policies and procedures within the court would have a positive impact on a "large number of Australian abuse survivors".

Ms Johnston said it was a "no-brainer" that the court came under the commission's terms of reference.

"As an institution, the Family Court deals extensively with child sexual assault," Ms Johnston said, adding it was critical that the commission did its "job properly".

Ms Johnston said Bravehearts was aware of instances where the court's practices were deficient and had led to children being placed at serious risk of sexual harm.

The Family Court has hit back, saying Bravehearts had misunderstood what an "institution" is in the context of the royal commission.

"The abuse being investigated by the royal commission specifically 'does not include the family'," a spokesperson for the Family Court said.

"There are other obvious reasons why courts do not fall within the remit of the royal commission and to suggest they do is to fundamentally misunderstand the role of courts."

She said there were many courts where the issue of child sexual assault and the contact children should have with parents arose, not only in family law proceedings.

She said the reasons for every decision made by the court were published and the reasons behind every decision were open to scrutiny.

The royal commission has made a point of not commenting outside public hearings.