Australia Family Court Reforms

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Australia Family Court Reforms

Sitting as a Family Court judge, Diana Bryant could see from her bench what the lawyers could not: their clients, who sat in silence behind them, looking angry and frustrated, trying to resist the temptation to protest when they disagreed with what was being said.

... When she offered the couple their chance to have a say, she was startled by what she heard. This was a case in which the father's access to the children had been limited because there had been allegations of child sexual abuse, which the child later retracted.

... When the mother spoke, she did not ask for what she wanted either. She talked passionately about how she had not made the abuse complaint out of malice but because she had been encouraged to by child protection officers; .

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