Family courts can inflame gender violence, inquiry told

Community legal services, women's organisations and Indigenous groups appeared before the committee on Friday.

The family court system can sometimes exacerbate domestic violence issues. (Diego Fedele/AAP PHOTOS)

Rachel Carson, from the Australian Institute of Family Studies, said 58 per cent of separated families reported experiencing violence.

"As the formality of their engagement with court processes, legal processes increases, you'll see that so too do their reports of experiencing emotional abuse and physical abuse," Dr Carson said.

"There were concerns the proceedings would have been used as a means by which to continue to perpetrate the domestic and family violence that preceded the relationship or preceded the court proceedings."

Family courts focus on the responsibilities of parents to their children.

The Uniting Church argued family law proceedings should provide an opportunity to hear from victims of domestic violence and hold perpetrators to account.

"The family law system does not sufficiently recognise or respond to family violence," the church said.

"Services like Uniting are confronted daily with examples of where the system fails to protect victim-survivors and, in some instances, where the system perpetuates further harm."

The legal system sometimes seemed to prioritise parental access to children over their safety, the committee was told.

The Council of Single Mothers and their Children said attending multiple courts for family law and domestic violence matters often felt like a full-time job.

"(Women) are unable to work if they have been working, some lose jobs for taking too much time off," the group said.

Across Australia, one in four women have experienced violence by an intimate partner or family member.

At least 46 women have been violently killed this year.

State, territory and commonwealth governments have committed to ending violence against women within a generation.

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