Non-custodial Fathers Suicides
Reverend the Hon. Dr GORDON MOYES: I ask the Special Minister of State, representing the Attorney General, a question without notice. Is the Minister aware that suicide fencing is being installed on the Sydney Harbour Bridge? Is the Minister aware that the majority of suicides are of one category: divorced fathers aged typically from 30 years to 50 years who have lost access to their children, have crippling maintenance payments linked to their gross earnings and who are left with negligible assets? What representations, if any, has the Minister made to his Federal counterparts in the face of these incidents to promote changes to aspects of the Family Law Act, including, for example, a presumption in law for every child to have equal contact with both the mother and the father unless there are proven mitigating circumstances against this?
The Hon. JOHN DELLA BOSCA: The answer to the first part of the honourable member’s question is no, I was not aware of suicide-prevention wire being erected on the Sydney Harbour Bridge. I stand indebted to him for that information. Secondly, no, I was not aware that currently the majority of suicides in New South Wales are people with the demographics he described. Again, I stand indebted to him for providing me with that information. Thirdly, there has been toing and froing about some of the arrangements. The current law and policy of both sides of politics in the Commonwealth remains the fundamental principle that the interests of the child is primary. There are different interpretations on the way the court determines those matters. I will get a more detailed answer from our Attorney General and undertake to provide it to the honourable member as quickly as I can.
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Hon. BOB DEBUS: I am advised that the NSW Legal Aid Commission contributed to a submission made by National Legal Aid on the exposure draft of the Family Law Amendments (Shared Parental Responsibility) Bill 2005.
I understand that the Commonwealth is currently undertaking further drafting of this legislation.
