Exposure Draft: Family Law Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2023

Closed 10 Nov 2023

Opened 18 Sep 2023

Contact

FamilyLawAmendmentBillNo2@ag.gov.au

Feedback updated 29 Feb 2024

We asked

From 18 September to 10 November 2023, we sought feedback on an exposure draft of the Family Law Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2023 (the exposure draft). The exposure draft proposed amendments to the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) to make sure separating couples can better understand the decision-making framework used in family law to resolve their property and financial matters confidently and safely.

The proposed amendments aim to address the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Final Report No. 135: Family Law for the Future - An Inquiry into the Family Law System and implement elements of the Government Response to the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Family Law System.

The release of the exposure draft was an opportunity for the community to provide feedback on the proposed amendments. We asked for feedback about the proposed amendments, including whether they achieve our intended policy outcomes, using specific questions set out in a consultation paper.

You said

We received 86 submissions on the exposure draft. These came from:

  • members of the public
  • legal professionals
  • family law services sector representatives including family dispute resolution professionals and Children’s Contact Services
  • women’s safety advocacy groups
  • First Nations bodies
  • academics.

Many submissions supported the policy intention of reforms in the exposure draft, particularly the focus on recognising the economic effect of family violence in family law matters and simplifying the property decision-making framework.

The responses included helpful, technical suggestions to support improvements to the exposure draft, and provided useful insights based on experience within the family law system.

We did

The feedback will inform our advice to government on improvements to the exposure draft. We thank everyone who took the time to engage with us by providing feedback.

We have published submissions where we have received permission from the author to do so. Some submissions have been redacted to avoid breaching section 121 of the Family law Act, for privacy considerations and where there are concerns about copyright material.

Published responses

View submitted responses where consent has been given to publish the response.

Overview

The Australian Government is committed to improving the family law system so that it is accessible, safer, simpler to use, and delivers justice and fairness for all Australian families. The Government wants to make sure separating couples can better understand the decision-making framework used in family law to resolve their property and financial matters confidently and safely.

The release of the draft Family Law Amendment Bill (No. 2) 2023 (the exposure draft) is an opportunity to provide feedback on proposed amendments that seek to achieve this outcome.

Submission process closed

Thank you for your interest. The period to make a submission closed at 11:59pm (AEDT) on Friday, 10 November 2023. It is no longer possible to make a submission.

Download the exposure draft

The exposure draft would amend the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (Family Law Act) and make some consequential amendments to the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Act 2021 (Cth) (FCFCOA Act). This includes amendments to address the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Final Report No. 135: Family Law for the Future - An Inquiry into the Family Law System (ALRC Report) and to implement elements of the Government Response to the Joint Select Committee on Australia's Family Law System (JSC).

The exposure draft contains 4 schedules that thematically present the proposed amendments:

  • Schedule 1: Property reforms
  • Schedule 2: Children’s contact services
  • Schedule 3: Case management and procedure
  • Schedule 4: General provisions

Note: the exposure draft may not necessarily reflect the scope of the final Bill presented to parliament following this consultation process.

Download our consultation paper

We have prepared a consultation paper to explain our exposure draft and seek stakeholder views on key issues. This consultation paper reflects the structure of the exposure draft. It provides information on the amendments within each schedule of the exposure draft and the policies that they seek to implement. We strongly encourage you to download, read and refer to this paper in conjunction with the exposure draft in preparing your submission.

Download our fact sheet

For a short overview of the Bill, download our fact sheet:

Public Webinar

On 5 October 2023, we presented a webinar to provide an overview of the measures in the exposure draft. You can view the recording of the webinar and download a copy of the webinar slides below.

Note: the contents on the webinar slides are summaries only and should not be solely relied on. You should read the slides in conjunction with the consultation paper and exposure draft in preparing your feedback.

Why your views matter

We welcome feedback from all stakeholders, and appreciate the time and effort involved in considering draft legislation. Your feedback and perspectives are invaluable to ensuring the effective implementation and operation of the proposed reforms.

Have your say

We invite submissions in response to the wording of the proposed amendments and, in particular, in response to the specific consultation questions set out in the consultation paper.

The easiest way to make a submission is to complete our online questionnaire on areas that are of interest to you. You can provide responses to as many or as few questions as you like. If you do not wish to respond to particular questions, please leave the response field blank (do not write “Not applicable”, “N/A” or “Nil”). Click ‘Make a submission’ below to get started.

We will only publish your submission if you advise us to do so. When making a submission through the Consultation Hub, you can indicate if you would like your submission published or if you would like to make an anonymous submission.

Submissions must not directly or indirectly identify persons, associates of persons, or witnesses involved in family law proceedings. This means that submissions should not include details like a person’s name (or their children), address, workplace, or school.  Section 121 of the Family Law Act makes it an offence, except in very limited circumstances, to publish this information.

If you advise us to publish your submission, you will be required to acknowledge and agree that you have made all reasonable efforts to:

  • clearly label material in your submission where the copyright is owned by a third party, and
  • ensure that the third party has consented to this material being published.

Even if you advise us to publish your submission, we reserve the right to leave unpublished any submission or part thereof, in particular if we consider that:

  • publishing a submission or part of a submission would be in breach of subsection 121(1) of the Family Law Act
  • a submission or part of a submission contains copyright material, publication of which may be in breach of the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth)
  • a submission breaches the department’s submission requirements set out, in particular, contains photos, file size (larger than 25MB), or file type requirements specified.

Submissions may be subject to freedom of information requests, or requests from Parliament, which we will consider and respond to in line with regulatory requirements.

Contact us

Attorney-General’s Department
3-5 National Circuit
BARTON ACT 2600
Email: FamilyLawAmendmentBillNo2@ag.gov.au

Interests

  • Legislation
  • Family