The Albury Wodonga Family and Domestic Violence Committee has expressed concern at news of One Nation's Pauline Hanson co-chairing a parliamentary inquiry into the family court system.
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In a letter sent to Indi MP Helen Haines and Farrer MP Susan Ley, AWFDVC chairperson Amanda Cohn wrote of the committee's position "regarding the recent announcement of an inquiry into the family court system to be chaired by Senator Pauline Hanson and Kevin Andrews".
"The AWFDVC is concerned that appointing a chair who has publicly expressed strong personal views that are at odds with research evidence, expert opinion, and the experiences of front-line workers in the sector jeopardises the integrity of the inquiry," she said.
"We believe there is significant room for improvement of the family court system, as acknowledged by the Australian Law Reform Commission inquiry findings published in March 2019, however any reform must be centered on the safety of the victims of family violence, especially children."
Senator Hanson told the ABC in the wake of her appointment by Prime Minister Scott Morrison that some mothers were making false claims of domestic violence to hinder fathers' access to children.
When asked by the ABC what evidence she had, Senator Hanson pointed to her personal experience with her son.
A number of advocacy groups spoke against the claims, pointing to previous comments made by the Senator to argue she will not bring a neutral position to the inquiry.
Dr Cohn told The Border Mail she urged the region's federal members to consider the report published by the Australian Law Reform Commission in March.
"If the government wants to go forward with another inquiry, it's really important to put victims of violence at the centre of that and especially children," she said.
"That should be chaired by someone who can consider that evidence with integrity and we're concerned Senator Hanson can't do that because of the strong views she's put on the record recently.
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"We've seen an outpouring from domestic and family violence advocates and service organisations in response to this appointment.
"I really hope the government is listening to the experts and the people who do this work on the front-lines and that they would reconsider the appointment." The AWFDVC is a network of over 95 organisations and community members, and the committee will prepare a submission to the court system inquiry,
"We chose to write to our local members because we're a local committee representing local service providers and people with a lived experience of family violence and we're hoping our local members would be concerned about this issue and would want the inquiry to be managed as well as possible," Dr Cohn said.
In 2017, the Federal Government ordered the ALRC to conduct a wide-ranging review of the system, and the final report made 60 recommendations.