The Abbott government will try to raise divorce fees for the third time in an attempt to help restore the Family Courts' finances.
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It is understood that Attorney-General George Brandis, QC, will try to convince crossbench senators to change their minds to get the fees passed in the next sitting period in September. Without Labor or the Greens, the government needs support from six of the eight crossbenchers to succeed.
Senator Brandis' office is believed to be considering options for another regulation that involves raising and reducing different types of Family Court fees, including reducing some concession fees.
The government previously threatened to cut frontline services, close registries and not to replace retiring judges if higher fees were not maintained, saying they were necessary to keep the Family and Federal Circuit Courts financially sustainable.
But five crossbench senators have told Fairfax Media they will not be swayed, with some saying that the government must find other ways to fund the courts than raising fees.
Palmer United Party senator Dio Wang said no new options for raising fees would change his mind. "It's the government's responsibility to make sure the judicial system is efficient for the community. It's not somewhere the government should be trying to make a saving."
Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm agreed, saying he sympathised with the attorney-general over his constrained budget, but more money for the courts could be found from other areas including welfare, education, health and aged pensions.
Senator Leyonhjelm did not rule out supporting future hikes in court fees, but said this particular increase could not be justified.
Senator Nick Xenophon said the government needed to find ways to reduce, not increase the cost of litigation to improve Australians' access to justice.
Independent Senator John Madigan said that he would not consider returning money from additional fees to Family Courts until broader reforms were introduced to make them less adversarial: "This may mean there has to be increases in fees [later] but before that the delivery and quality of service and justice must improve."
The Senate has twice blocked attempts to introduce higher fees for divorce and other family law applications in the past two months, with Labor and the Greens criticising the fees as exploiting family breakdown for financial gain.
Senator Brandis snuck in slightly higher fees than he had initially proposed into law during the winter break. Labor, the Greens and the crossbench unanimously disallowed this when Parliament resumed earlier this month, returning the $1200 divorce fee to $845. The higher fees were expected to raise $87 million over four years, about 60 per cent of which was to help fund court expenses.
Labor MPs unsuccessfully challenged the move in the Federal Court, with Justice John Dowsett dismissing their argument that the regulation was unlawful because it was the same in substance as its predecessor, which was disallowed. This paves the way for the government to try to raise divorce fees higher still.
