Credits to Herald Sun, September 7, 2026

by Mumma Bear | Posted on September 7, 2026

Wow. I need you to sit down for this one, beautiful people.

Family Court horrors have finally made the front page.

A five page special investigation into Australia's Family Court and the first of a three part series has just been released, and it doesn't hold back. It calls the Family Court "the most dangerous institution" this country has ever seen, after examining case after case where children were placed in the care of their alleged abusers.

I don't think I've ever been more excited to read something in the mainstream media, and here's why.

For years, protective parents who have been through this system have been trying to speak up. But they've been silenced. Gag orders, fear of losing their kids even further, the sheer exhaustion of it all, it's kept so much of this hidden.

And now, it's on the front page. Whoo hoo.

The investigation describes a family law system being weaponised by abusers to entrap ex-partners and harm children. Twenty serious cases involving allegations of physical and sexual abuse were examined, all from the last two years. In fourteen of those twenty cases, the children were ultimately placed in the sole custody of the very person accused of abusing them.

Fourteen out of twenty. Sit with that for a second.

It reminded me of a conversation I had recently with a friend. She asked me something that stopped me in my tracks.

"When you leave family court and orders have been made, what happens afterwards? Do they follow up?"

I told her no. Nobody checks.

And the more I've sat with that, the more disturbing it becomes. If a court has decided where a child lives, and there were serious allegations of abuse on the table, why wouldn't anyone check what happens next? Why wouldn't anyone want to know if that child is safe?

I believe they know exactly what they're doing.

And here's the part that makes protective parents feel truly powerless. When you try to get help anywhere else, the police, a school, any other service, you're told the same thing: "Sorry, it's a family court matter, we can't help you." The only door left open is the one back into the exact system that made the mistake in the first place. It's an extreme comparison, but it's the closest way I can describe how that feels: being told to go back to the person who hurt you for help, because of what came from it.

This is why this investigation matters so much. For years, protective parents have been saying these things quietly, to each other, behind closed doors. Now someone else is saying it, loudly, on the front page of a major newspaper. That is a big deal.

One part that stayed with me is written by journalist Aneeka Simonis. She unpacks a myth many of us know all too well, the comforting but false idea that if a court removes a child from their mother, she must have done something wrong. The reality, she writes, is far more terrifying: many of these women did everything right, and lost their children anyway, because the systems meant to protect them failed instead. She also makes the point that when money can buy a stronger legal defence, a mother's genuine fears for her child can be twisted and used against her.

There is so much more in this investigation than I can fit here, including handwritten notes from children themselves, begging to go home to their mums. It is heartbreaking, and it is necessary reading.

So please, share this. Not because we want pity, but because for years, protective parents have felt unheard, and this morning, for the first time in a long time, we have a reason to smile. Our voices are reaching people who may never have heard them before. Maybe, just maybe, people are finally starting to listen, and that's how we start preventing this from happening to more children, and bring the ones still trapped in it home to where they're safe and loved.

That is what these children deserve. And that is what we're here for.

We've put all three parts of the Herald Sun's Family Court investigation together in one place, so you don't have to go hunting for them.