Specialised child safety hubs must be rolled out in every state so critical information can be compiled into a single brief to prevent Family Court judges from placing kids in danger, a leading advocate says.
The intelligence centres would combine police, child safety workers and health professionals under one roof, where a trained forensic interviewer would conduct a single, trauma-informed interview with a child to be used across all courts.
All relevant history – such as hospital visits, police call-outs, child protection concerns and school attendance – would be collated in a unified report handed to Family Court judges to evaluate a child’s safety based on the balance of probabilities.
Victoria already has several multidisciplinary centres which co-locate police and welfare experts but advocates warn these hubs are primarily focused on criminal convictions and do not combine their intelligence into consolidated civil risk reports.
This means judges are blind to critical safety information about at-risk children especially in cases where high evidentiary thresholds force police to abandon criminal prosecutions.
A more radical proposal urged by critics is the complete dismantlement of the Family Court to be replaced with state-based courts which already handles criminal and protection matters.
The survivor-led Family Court Accountability Network (FCAN) said a unified body was necessary to prevent kids from being handed over to abusers.
A landmark 2019 Australian Law Reform Commission report declared state-based courts were the best model to protect kids.
It found that while the majority of Family Court cases involved complex factors like family violence and coercive control, the court has no statutory investigative powers and cannot compel state child protection agencies to investigate.
Source: Urgent call for child safety hubs nationwide to keep kids from danger | Herald Sun