Former Family Court Judge spills the beans
– about how feminism has captured the Family Court system
Bettina Arndt, Apr 01, 2025
“The Family Court system is in enormous trouble.” That’s a momentous statement given that the speaker, Adelaide barrister Stuart Lindsay, is a former Family Court judge. But there’s much more… This experienced insider blames the parlous state of this vital institution on a campaign led by the Labor party to “promote a particular pronounced feminist ideology in the Family Law Act.”
Lindsay spent ten years, from 2004-2014, working as a judge in the Federal Circuit court dealing mainly with family court matters. He’s now back working as special counsel for a local firm, on the coalface of a system he sees as being in dire straits.
He’s been right there, witnessing the destructive impact of feminist ideology infiltrating the family law system, destroying the lives of so many ordinary families. Lindsay explains the big push started with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, but Kevin Rudd was right on board, as successive Labor governments have “tried to ensure judges provide for right outcomes in accordance with the invariably feminist ideology.”
The play sheet at the heart of this ideology is domestic violence, namely the nonsensical feminist claim that all other considerations regarding the best interests of children must be swept aside by the need to protect youngsters from dangerous dads. This incentivises false allegations of violence since they give women immense power throughout the family law process.
During my conversation with him it was utterly fascinating to hear this former judicial officer describing what it was like being on the receiving end of feminist efforts to insert domestic violence into every part of the Family Law Act, requiring judges to endlessly “dip their lid to this particular notion.”
Judges must “bend the knee and give recognition to these political declarations,” says Lindsay, even though, when proper evidence is presented to the court, many domestic violence allegations are withdrawn or fall apart. But by then, the allegations have often been successfully used to have fathers removed from the home and denied contact with children; with the accuser given endless advantages, including financial benefits when it comes to negotiating her way through the system.
The consequences have been dire. “The Family Law Act has promoted great wickedness throughout Australian society for 50 years,” declared Stuart Lindsay.