The Albanese Government has today tabled the independent review of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Act 2021 (the FCFCOA Act).
The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 1) and the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) (FCFCOA) play a pivotal role in ensuring access to justice across a wide range of sensitive and complex matters.
This includes supporting Australian families to resolve their family law matters with dignity, with a strong focus on protecting vulnerable parties and children and hearing general law matters including migration proceedings.
Under section 284 of the FCFCOA Act, a review of the legislation that the FCFCOA operates under was required three years after the commencement of the legislation.
The review of the FCFCOA Act was conducted by the Hon Linda Dessau AC CVO and Professor Helen Rhoades OAM. The Government thanks Ms Dessau and Ms Rhoades for undertaking this important work.
The report found that many of the areas within the scope of the review are working well and notes recent substantial commitments of government funding to the FCFCOA, which have included:
- Funding of $44.5 million over three years from 2025/26 to the FCFCOA to continue providing family law case management services to improve outcomes for vulnerable groups and victims of family and domestic violence.
- Funding of $115.6 million in Budget 2024/25 to establish Migration Hubs in Melbourne and Western Sydney to expeditiously resolve matters, and appoint an additional 8 judges for the FCFCOA (Division 2) and Federal Court of Australia to address migration backlogs.
- Funding of $160 million in MYEFO 2023/24 to migration system integrity, which included funding for 10 FCFCOA (Division 2) judges.
