When Caroline's* ex-partner became abusive and threatening, their daughter started biting her fingernails.
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The mother pleaded with police to bar his contact, and "lived in fear" for nearly two weeks before they ordered it; one traumatic ordeal was over, but another was yet to begin in the bowels of the family law system.
Plunged into court, the woman won full custody of her eight-year-old after some months, and forked out a hefty fee for her lawyer's service. A later property battle saw her invoiced four times that amount, which she is contesting, and a bungled hearing lead to her ex-partner's lawyers putting a caveat on her house over his unpaid fees.
"I'm under enormous financial and psychological pressure here and I'm meant to provide a happy home, food and everything for my beautiful daughter," Caroline says.
"At no stage in this whole process has anyone - the judge, the lawyer - asked me, 'How are you managing at home?'
"The lawyers are lining their pockets with money, the process is so slow, and the children are the ones still biting their fingernails."
Caroline hopes the government's new family law inquiry will hear real cases and result in the substantial and timely overhauling of the family law system.
The latter will be an unlikely feat, Canberra's legal community says, given the government's record of turning a blind eye to similar reviews.
University of Canberra law academic, Dr Bruce Baer Arnold, says the new inquiry is a "political gimmick", and money spent on it would be better directed into the "relentlessly underfunded" family law system.
"[The government's attitude is], 'Well, we're too busy or too lazy to sit down and think about this. We can't even be bothered to read the executive summaries [of other reviews], so rather than making the hard decisions ... we'll just announce another inquiry'," Baer Arnold says.
"I think the best thing you can say about it is it's escapism ... [and] deeply dishonest."
The same day the new inquiry was announced, September 17, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the government was considering recommendations made by the Australian Law Reform Commission's similar review into the family law system. Its final report was tabled in parliament in April and included 60 recommendations.
The government has wholly or partially implemented some of the 33 recommendations made by the 2017 House of Representatives review into family law and domestic violence, a spokeswoman for the Attorney-General's Department says.
It tabled its response to the inquiry in September 2018, about nine months after its final report was released. The response references the government's pitch to combine the Federal Circuit Court of Australia, which deals with the bulk of family law cases, with the Family Court of Australia, which deals with more complex cases.
Canberra's law community is contesting the proposal, with Baer Arnold saying it is consistent with the trend of "stripping funding out of the judicial system".
"Rather than having a specialist court where we have specialist judges, specialist support staff and experts, [the government wants to] just roll it into [one]," he says.
"[It is] cut, cut, cutting with this uninformed, unthinking, reflexive [attitude]."
The commission's review looks primarily at procedural and substantive law, while the House of Representatives' focuses on "other specific aspects of the [family law] system, such as the experience of victims of family violence", the department spokeswoman says.
"The terms of reference for the new inquiry include a range of specific issues, some of which have not been fully explored in previous reviews.
"For example, the interaction between the family law system and child support system, and the financial costs of family law disputes."
Blackburn Chambers barrister James Haddock says while the government insists the inquiry will shed new light on the sector, the law reform commission's review is thorough enough to render it unnecessary.
Inquiry leads, conservative veteran MP Kevin Andrews and One Nation Senator Pauline Hanson, will not offer the same expertise as the commission. The family law system's glaring problem is underfunding and undersourcing, and it should be addressed immediately, Haddock says.
"A large part of the issue is the lack of judicial availability.
"If you appointed more judges and resourced them properly, they'd be able to do more cases. It has a direct effect on delay."
The inquiry's terms of reference do not specifically talk about underfunding.
Chief executive of the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association, Alison Verhoeven, says Hanson's appointment shows the inquiry is merely part of a "political game".
The health sector is also doing work to curb violence against women, and the Department of Social Services' national plan to reduce violence will be in effect until 2022.
"It's really disturbing to us that this important work, which is being lead with evidence, has the potential to be undermined by an inquiry which is being led by these individuals," Verhoeven says.
"[Hanson] has made public statements around family violence and family law disputes that we consider to be demonstrably biased.
"They're based on anecdotes and personal experience, rather than taking into account the type of evidence that is available from the law reform commission and through these national health plans."
Women's Legal Centre ACT principal solicitor, Claudia Maclean, says the family law system is "chronically underfunded", and the inquiry will "essentially divert much needed funds" away from it.
It won't put enough emphasis on the role of community legal centres in family matters, or acknowledge the complexity of cases given it is "over prescriptive" on how they should be resolved.
"I'm in the family law community and the general mood is pure frustration," Maclean says.
"In Canberra, we have a huge gap between those who don't qualify for free legal assistance and those who can afford a private lawyer.
"We try to close it to some degree, but ultimately we're a small centre and without adequate resourcing, that's really hard to do."
Caroline wants to see more money put towards supporting people in the family law system.
Trying to tackle two casual jobs and the care of her daughter, she feels lucky to have the support of her friends; but some women are "far worse off", and she fears the government won't do anything to relieve pressure and delays, even after the new inquiry.
"All that money, all these applications, all the processes and all this time could go towards believing people and the children," she says. "If you don't believe me, believe my child."
The family law inquiry is due to report on its findings by October 7, 2020.
*Name changed to protect anonymity