Family Law Amendment Bill 2024
24 October 2024
On 9 October 2024, the Law Council provided a submission to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Legislation Committee in response to its inquiry into the Family Law Amendment Bill 2024.
Our submission was informed by the expertise of our Family Law Section, in addition to several Constituent Bodies. We are grateful for the ongoing and constructive engagement of our members throughout this significant reform process.
In our submission, we emphasised our support for many elements of the Bill, and the underlying policy intention of these proposed reforms to progress meaningful change for the benefit of Australian families and victim-survivors of domestic and family violence.
However, we also raised concerns that without substantial additional resourcing to the family law system and the legal assistance sector in Australia, the measures proposed in the Bill will further increase unmet demand. We recommended that the Bill’s passage must be supported by urgent additional resourcing and funding to the family law system and legal assistance sector, consistent with the recommendations in Dr Warren Mundy’s National Legal Assistance Partnership Review Report.
The other recommendations in our submission were focused on discrete drafting suggestions and opportunities to minimise the risk of unintended consequences arising from various aspects of the Bill. Our recommendations included:
- that there be a further review of the operation of section 102NA of the Family Law Act, to support the ongoing viability of the Family Violence and Cross-Examination of Parties Scheme;
- that upon the Bill’s passage, all amendments should apply to every matter heard after a single commencement date;
- that further consideration be given to the proposed provisions about companion animals, given that these changes will likely exacerbate conflict and extend proceedings;
- that the drafting of Part 2 of Schedule 1 to the Bill, relating to the less adversarial trial approach for property or other non-child-related proceedings, should be reconsidered with respect to the various issues identified in our submission;
- that proposed section 90RI of the Family Law Act be amended to clarify the requirements arising from the codification of the duty of financial disclosure; and
- that the provisions in Part 1 of Schedule 4 to the Bill, relating to costs orders, should be redrafted.
On 18 October 2024, Ms Di Simpson, Chair of the Law Council’s Family Law Section, appeared alongside the Law Council Secretariat at a public hearing for this inquiry. Ms Simpson delivered an Opening Statement, highlighting the Law Council’s longstanding interest in these reforms and our key recommendations, and responded to a variety of detailed questions from the Chair of the Committee, Senator Nita Green, and the Deputy Chair, Senator Paul Scarr. The Law Council Secretariat undertook to take several questions on notice and will provide a supplementary submission to the Committee shortly.
The Committee is due to report by 31 October 2024. We look forward to engaging with the Committee’s recommendations and monitoring the progress of the Bill in the Senate, including any amendments brought.
Caption: Ms Natalie Cooper, Senior Policy Lawyer and Ms Di Simpson, Chair of the Law Council’s Family Law Section.
Last Updated on 08/01/2025