It’s time to take the immense failures of our family law system seriously; dismissing them as ‘culture wars’ is just not good enough.
On Thursday, The Sydney Morning Herald reported an appeal court has ruled “a judge presiding over a family law case denied a father a fair trial by bullying and demeaning his lawyers in court.”
The Full Court of the Family Court of Australia listened to audio recordings and read transcripts of Federal Circuit Court Judge Guy Andrew’s interactions with lawyers. The material related to a 2019 “parenting and property settlement dispute”. Some of the judge’s remarks included, “Oh God”, “rubbish” and “that’s garbage”.
At one point, Judge Andrew’s suggested that the father’s solicitor had a “cognition problem” and took issue with him saying, “Your Honour, I just wanted…” To that, Judge Andrews replied, “What does ‘just’ mean?”
The court described Judge Andrew’s comments as, “cruel, insulting, humiliating and rude interactions.” The court added that this was an abuse of power and ordered a retrial before a new judge. This new trial will take place at taxpayer’s expense. The Sydney Morning Herald reports, “Judge Andrew’s comments suggested he would have rejected the father’s case ‘no matter what’”.
These words are what we should all take issue with here.
This isn’t one rogue judge being belligerent; there are many judges who have been criticised for such behaviour. What’s troubling is that this father’s case was going to be dismissed, “no matter what”.
A father’s wishes were to be dismissed, “no matter what”. Presumably a father’s access to his child were going to be dismissed, “no matter what”? It begs the question: how many other fathers have found them in a similar position, dismissed, “no matter what”, but did not have the funds or capacity to pursue legal action? This isn’t one judge with a poor attitude; it is an entire system which enables father’s to be dismissed.
That’s not a ‘culture war’ issue. That’s a human lives issue. That’s a children’s health issue.
As much as far left activists like to hope that we don’t notice them merrily dismantling the nuclear family unit; sometimes the evidence is presented very simply in black and white.
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Watch Corrine’s interview with Sydney-based criminal lawyer Samir Banga about anti-male gender bias in the legal system. [click here]
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Corrine Barraclough has a journalism career spanning 20 years, including senior positions at national magazines in London, New York & Sydney. She embraced the whirlwind of celebrity and entertainment journalism and the heady lifestyle that went with it before walking away from it all to live on the Gold Coast and pursue a balanced life.
The Corrine Barraclough Show discusses family law, its impact on mental health and the damage of the gender-bias in mainstream media.
