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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 2 Hansard (27 February) . . Page.. 317 ..

MR HUMPHRIES (Attorney-General) (12.31), in reply: Mr Speaker, I welcome members' support for this legislation and thank them for their support. I endorse the comments made by both Ms Follett and Mr Moore about the importance of our maintaining a vigil on the question of domestic violence. There are still members of our community who view what occurs behind the closed doors of people's homes as a matter that is not the concern of the rest of the community. I think it is true to say that that attitude is being whittled away; but, to the extent that there are still people who feel that it is acceptable to perpetrate violence against other members of their family or relationship behind closed doors, we need to be prepared to create and to maintain laws which help the people against whom the violence is perpetrated.

The worst thing that could happen is for someone to find themselves in need of the protection of the law and discover that for some reason the law is inadequate to provide that protection. To some extent, until now the law in respect of the respective jurisdictions of the Family Court and the ACT Magistrates Court over domestic violence matters has been a problem which has caused parties that might otherwise have turned to the courts to perhaps think twice about the assistance that they can obtain from the courts. It has been quite satisfying to be able to resolve that difficulty by having, in a sense, a shared arrangement between the Family Court and the Magistrates Court to ensure that the orders of one court can be varied in appropriate circumstances by the orders of another court.

Mr Moore referred to the cooperation between the States and the Commonwealth on this issue. That is quite important. There has been some jealousy about the jurisdiction of family matters. I think Western Australia still maintains its own Family Court. The Family Court of Australia is not a court within Western Australia. There are still sensitivities about this. Therefore, it is quite outstanding that we have been able to get to the stage of having agreement between the Commonwealth and all the States and Territories to provide for this cross-vesting, so to speak, of jurisdiction. I thank members for their support for the Bill.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill agreed to in principle.

Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.

Bill agreed to.

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