Just released: Australian Law Reform Commission report into the Family Law System

After a period of delay, the Australian Law Reform Commission report concerning the Family Law System has now been publicly released.

It makes 60 separate recommendations concerning family law reform, including:

• the establishment of state and territory family law courts, with the eventual abolition of federal family law courts;
• provision for a legislative tort of family violence, with associated provision for damages (but with time limits as to the making of an application);
• an overhaul of the legislative provisions concerning parenting orders, including a reformulation of the factors to be judicially considered when determining a child's "best interests";
• a strengthening of existing legislative provisions to maintain a child's indigenous cultural connection, and a recognition of indigenous concepts of "family";
• the simplification of the legislative approach to property division, including the presumption of "equality of contributions" during a marital or de facto relationship;
• an enhancement of the requirements of the Family Law Act and related regulations, concerning the duty of financial disclosure;
• the placing of certain limitations on the making of interim applications in the family law courts; and
• a strengthening of the legislative provisions concerning the making of costs orders.

Lander & Rogers is proud to have contributed to the ALRC inquiry process, and to have been quoted throughout the ALRC report.

A copy of the full report can be found here.

We will share a more detailed summary in due course, but if you have any questions about how this may impact you, please contact a member of our Family Law group.