Govt plans to merge federal, family courts

Legislation to merge the Federal Court, Family Court and Federal Circuit Court into one entity has been introduced by the federal government, in a move to save money.

The courts' independence would be preserved with the changes to affect administrative and corporate operations, the bill says, consolidating finance, human resources, information technology and property and operations arrangements.

The bill, introduced to the Senate on Wednesday, makes the Federal Court responsible for managing the corporate services of all three courts.