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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-05-16 Daily Xml
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Parental Alienating Behaviours

The Hon. S.L. GAME (15:09): I seek leave to make a brief explanation prior to addressing a question to the Attorney-General on parental alienating behaviours.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.L. GAME: Almost one in five kids will experience parental alienation when their parents go through separation; in higher conflict cases it is closer to one in two. Parental alienating behaviours harm thousands of families in South Australia. These behaviours are a form of family violence, where an alienating parent and their allies use manipulative tactics to turn children against the other parent. Parental alienating behaviours can lead to significant issues, mental illness and even suicide.

Estimates indicate that one million Australian children are being alienated by a parent. This issue continues to be ignored, and parents and family members feel desperate and without assistance. I met with the Attorney-General in September 2022 for the purpose of asking the Attorney to discuss the issue of parental alienating behaviours with his colleagues and to consider referring the issue to the South Australian Law Reform Institute. My questions to the Attorney-General are:

1. Does the Attorney acknowledge that parental alienating behaviours negatively affect thousands of South Australian families?

2. Has the Attorney-General discussed parental alienating behaviours with his colleagues and, if so, who?

3. Will the Attorney-General commit to or consider referring this issue to the South Australian Law Reform Institute?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (15:11): I thank the honourable member for her question, and I acknowledge she has raised this issue with me. I have had some advice and some discussions on this issue. Before anything is done on this, it would need to be exceptionally finely balanced. As much as people want to see children not being used to harm other people, this seems to be quite a controversial area, where many of those pushing it have had personal instances with the Family Law Court and have grievances and dissatisfaction with the outcome. I certainly wouldn't want to be a part of anything that actually reinforces trauma people have gone through in the family law system.

In relation to a reference to the South Australian Law Reform Institute, having taken some advice on this and having had discussions about the ways these sorts of laws could be misused, it is not a matter that we currently intend to refer to SALRI.

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