Latest / Real Crime with Adam Shand / From The Desk - Family Court Under Scrutiny: Are Children Being Left in Danger?

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From The Desk - Family Court Under Scrutiny: Are Children Being Left in Danger? · Real Crime with Adam Shand

• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Real Crime with Adam Shand. I'm your host,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Adam Shand. This is my Friday feature from the desk.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: This week on Facebook, I discussed a story about the
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  Speaker 1: family court that appeared in Melbourne's Herald Sun newspaper. And
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  Speaker 1: I asked people to get in touch with me with
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  Speaker 1: their own experiences. The response was frankly overwhelming. Many women
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  Speaker 1: commented or contacted me privately with the same essential story.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: and they want their stories told. This was typical of
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  Speaker 1: their rationale, this one. I'd be very interested in speaking
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  Speaker 1: with you about my experiences, not simply because I want
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  Speaker 1: my own story told, but because it demonstrates some of
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  Speaker 1: the less visible ways the family court system contributes to
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  Speaker 1: harming families. Sometimes there are years of litigation, the financial devastation,
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  Speaker 1: the decisions made on incomplete information, the children caught in
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  Speaker 1: the middle. the opportunities for intervention that are missed, and
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  Speaker 1: the families who eventually walk away from the system too
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  Speaker 1: damaged to keep fighting. Some had gag orders from the
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  Speaker 1: court that prevented publication of their ordeals. Here's one. I've
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  Speaker 1: been silenced and controlled by orders that do not benefit
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  Speaker 1: anyone other than a person who seeks to maintain control.
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  Speaker 1: This has nothing to do with parenting or time spent.
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  Speaker 1: It never was. The courts have silenced me and made
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  Speaker 1: it harder for me to be the advocate for my children.
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  Speaker 1: So one day, I hope to be able to be
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  Speaker 1: a part of change so others don't experience this. The
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  Speaker 1: common theme in the stories that were sent to me
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  Speaker 1: was they went to the family court believing it would
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  Speaker 1: protect their children from an abusive or dangerous former partner. Instead,
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  Speaker 1: they felt disbelieved, financially broken and powerless. Their warnings were,
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  Speaker 1: were dismissed. They were accused of trying to turn their
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  Speaker 1: children against their father. And the court ultimately delivered their
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  Speaker 1: children into the very danger they'd been trying to escape.
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  Speaker 1: The Herald Sun's Anika Simonis examined 20 serious cases involving
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  Speaker 1: allegations of abuse between 2023 and 2025. 14 children were
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  Speaker 1: ordered to live solely with the parent accused of abusing them.
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  Speaker 1: Of course, an allegation is not a finding of guilt.
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  Speaker 1: Family court proceedings are complex and judges must sometimes make
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  Speaker 1: decisions in a fog of accusation, denial and conflicting evidence.
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  Speaker 1: Not every allegation is true, but neither is every allegation false.
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  Speaker 1: But when the consequence of getting it wrong delivers a
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  Speaker 1: child into the hands of an abuser, The system must
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  Speaker 1: identify risk quickly, independently, and accurately. The Herald Sun investigation
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  Speaker 1: suggested that in some cases, it simply isn't. One of
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  Speaker 1: the central problems is that the family court doesn't operate
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  Speaker 1: in isolation, but the agencies surrounding it often do. The
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  Speaker 1: federal court makes parenting orders. State authorities investigate child abuse.
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  Speaker 1: Police deal with criminal allegations and family violence. State courts
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  Speaker 1: issue intervention orders. Schools, doctors, psychologists and counsellors may each
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  Speaker 1: hold another part of the story, but information can be delayed,
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  Speaker 1: incomplete or trapped inside a separate bureaucracy. A family court
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  Speaker 1: judge may be asked to make a life-changing decision before
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  Speaker 1: a child protection investigation has been completed or after an
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  Speaker 1: allegation has been classified as unsubstantiated. But unsubstantiated information does
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  Speaker 1: not necessarily mean disproved. It can mean that an overloaded
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  Speaker 1: agency didn't have enough evidence, resources or time to reach
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  Speaker 1: the legal threshold required. That distinction may be lost in
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  Speaker 1: the courtroom. the best interests of the child must come first.
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  Speaker 1: It recognises that children can be harmed not only by
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  Speaker 1: being assaulted themselves, but by seeing, hearing or experiencing the
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  Speaker 1: effects of family violence. On paper, the protection is there.
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  Speaker 1: The problem appears to be what happens in practice. Mothers
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  Speaker 1: told me that raising allegations of abuse sometimes seemed to
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  Speaker 1: count against them. They feared being labelled obstructive, hostile or
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  Speaker 1: unwilling to support the child's relationship with the other parent.
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  Speaker 1: Some believed that the more desperately they tried to warn
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  Speaker 1: the court, the less credible they appeared. That creates a
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  Speaker 1: terrifying dilemma. Stay silent and your child may remain exposed
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  Speaker 1: to danger. Speak out and you fear the court may
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  Speaker 1: decide that you are the problem. The court must, of course,
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  Speaker 1: be alert to genuine attempts by one parent to manipulate
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  Speaker 1: children or make false allegations against another. That happens, and
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  Speaker 1: fathers can also be victims of abuse, false claims and
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  Speaker 1: systems manipulation. I had letters from them as well. But
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  Speaker 1: a system designed to detect manipulation can become dangerous if
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  Speaker 1: it begins treating protective behaviour as evidence of parental hostility.
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  Speaker 1: A traumatised parent may not present as calm, organised and persuasive.
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  Speaker 1: She may appear angry, frightened, obsessive or inconsistent. Those can
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  Speaker 1: be symptoms of trauma. Yet inside an adversarial courtroom, they
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  Speaker 1: may be interpreted as proof that she is unreasonable. Meanwhile,
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  Speaker 1: an alleged abuser may appear controlled, articulate and composed. That
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  Speaker 1: doesn't make the allegation true, but appearances cannot be allowed
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  Speaker 1: to substitute for a proper risk assessment. Family reports and
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  Speaker 1: psychological assessments can carry enormous influence. A few paragraphs written
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  Speaker 1: by an expert may affect whether a mother sees her
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  Speaker 1: children every day under supervision or not at all. Yet
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  Speaker 1: concerns have been raised about inconsistent standards, limited regulation and
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  Speaker 1: the accountability of some practitioners working in this space. These
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  Speaker 1: people can have an outsized influence over the future of
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  Speaker 1: a child. Those exercising that power should be properly qualified,
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  Speaker 1: independently regulated and accountable for the quality of their work.
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  Speaker 1: Then there's the cost. Family court litigation can consume tens
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  Speaker 1: or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Parents can sell homes,
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  Speaker 1: borrow from relatives, exhaust their savings and accumulate debts they
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  Speaker 1: may never repay. The Better Resource Party can sometimes keep
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  Speaker 1: the litigation going until the other parent simply cannot afford
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  Speaker 1: to continue. And when one party is forced to represent themselves,
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  Speaker 1: they're up against trained and combat-hardened lawyers, expert witnesses and
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  Speaker 1: a mountain of documents. Access to justice can depend heavily
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  Speaker 1: on how much money you have. You get as much
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  Speaker 1: justice as you can afford. That provides another opportunity for
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  Speaker 1: systems abuse, a controlling former partner may no longer have
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  Speaker 1: access to the family home, the bank account or the
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  Speaker 1: victim's daily life. But repeated applications, demands for documents, legal
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  Speaker 1: threats and constant court appearances can become another means of
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  Speaker 1: exerting control. The relationship may have ended, but the coercion
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  Speaker 1: and control has simply acquired a case number. I've heard
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  Speaker 1: from mothers who've experienced domestic violence and then entered parenting proceedings.
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  Speaker 1: They identified this same pattern. litigation prolonging control, financial pressure,
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  Speaker 1: repeated trauma and long-term psychological damage. For children, the consequences
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  Speaker 1: may be even greater. There are accounts of children resisting contact,
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  Speaker 1: expressing fear or making disclosures only to feel that nobody
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  Speaker 1: has listened. In some cases I've heard this week, police
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  Speaker 1: have reportedly been ordered to enforce the removal of children
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  Speaker 1: from the parent with whom they felt safe. Imagine that
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  Speaker 1: scene through the eyes of a child. Police at the door.
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  Speaker 1: Adults physically removing you from your home. Your mother is
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  Speaker 1: unable to stop them. And then being told, this has
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  Speaker 1: all been done in your best interests. The court can't
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  Speaker 1: publicly discuss the evidence in individual cases, and there may
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  Speaker 1: be information that outsiders do not know. Privacy is essential
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  Speaker 1: to protect children. But secrecy also makes systemic failure difficult
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  Speaker 1: to expose. The public cannot properly evaluate decisions. Journalists face
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  Speaker 1: strict reporting restrictions. Families are often unable to tell their
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  Speaker 1: full stories. And when several similar accounts emerge, the system
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  Speaker 1: can dismiss each one as an isolated, complicated case. That's
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  Speaker 1: why calls for a Royal Commission or another genuinely independent
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  Speaker 1: public inquiry must be taken seriously. Not because every judge
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  Speaker 1: is wrong, not because every mother is right, and not
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  Speaker 1: because every accused father is an abuser, but because the
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  Speaker 1: stakes are too high for the system to investigate itself
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  Speaker 1: behind closed doors. We need to know how often children
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  Speaker 1: are placed with a parent accused of serious violence or abuse,
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  Speaker 1: how those allegations were assessed, what weight was given to
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  Speaker 1: the views and disclosures of the children, whether relevant police,
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  Speaker 1: child protection and intervention order records reached the judge, what
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  Speaker 1: qualifications the experts held. how often decisions were later reversed,
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  Speaker 1: and most importantly, what happened to the kids later on.
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  Speaker 1: The court says reforms have strengthened its focus on safety
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  Speaker 1: and its ability to address litigation abuse. Those reforms should
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  Speaker 1: be acknowledged. But legislative change means very little if the
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  Speaker 1: same failures continue at ground level. The incredible response to
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  Speaker 1: my post tells me this is not simply a legal debate.
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  Speaker 1: It is a deep, open wound. Many of the women
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  Speaker 1: who contacted me were not demanding that I automatically accept
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  Speaker 1: every detail of their case. They were asking to be heard.
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  Speaker 1: They believed the system that promised to put their children
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  Speaker 1: first instead left them frightened, impoverished and separated from those children.
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  Speaker 1: Some may never recover financially. Some relationships between mothers and
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  Speaker 1: children may never be repaired. And it's clear to me
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  Speaker 1: some children may still be living in danger. A court
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  Speaker 1: dealing with families will never make everyone happy. Judges must
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  Speaker 1: make decisions where no option is perfect. But to me,
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  Speaker 1: this system seems to be unaffordable, opaque and potentially unsafe.
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  Speaker 1: The fundamental question is not whether mothers or fathers should win.
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  Speaker 1: Children are not prizes in a contest between parents. The
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  Speaker 1: question is whether the system can recognise abuse, hear the
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  Speaker 1: voice of a frightened child and act before more damage
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  Speaker 1: is done. Because when a child says, I'm afraid, the
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  Speaker 1: response cannot be to silence them. And when a parent says,
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  Speaker 1: my child is in danger, the system must do more
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  Speaker 1: than punish her for raising the alarm. I'm Adam Shan
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  Speaker 1: for Rural Crime. This has been From the Desk. for
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  Speaker 1: this week. You can follow me and subscribe on Facebook
• 12:21
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• 12:33
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