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The government does not take the Family Protection Bill very seriously, an outgoing expatriate High Court judge says.
In an interview Justice Pallaras said the reason for him saying that is that the minister who was responsible for the implementation of that bill, in a speech made publicly, admitted after the bill was passed that he knew very little about the bill.
He said that minister said that he was very grateful for lawyers who were feeding him with questions in parliament so that he would answer and asked questions.
“If that is the attitude of the minister whose job is to implement the Act, then the Act is not worth the paper that is printed on, it’s worthless,” Justice Pallaras, who has just completed his three-year term with the High Court, said.
“There is no commitment by the government because you can see that in the lack of money that is being directed towards this problem.
“There are no government funded shelters for women, no refuges for children, no social welfare funding, there were no psychology or psychiatric help for victims, nothing, this government does not take domestic violence seriously.”
He said and the Minister of Justice is the leading example of that.
“And until that change, one measure of the country of how we treat each other is we treat each other in this country very, very badly.
“And until that change, again, that will also be a reflection of the measure of growth in the community.”
BY ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
