Exposure Draft: Family Law Regulations 2024

Overview

The Attorney-General’s Department welcomes feedback from interested stakeholders on an exposure draft of the Family Law Regulations 2024.

The Family Law Regulations 1984 (the existing Regulations) are due to sunset on 1 April 2025. The department has been reviewing the existing Regulations with the intent to remake them prior to sunsetting. The existing Regulations support the operation of the Family Law Act by prescribing matters of practice and procedure, including:

• relevant state and territory laws and agencies
• protected names and symbols
• requirements regarding family law arbitration
• the conferral of family law jurisdiction on certain state or territory courts
• requirements for parentage testing procedures
• requirements for the registration of overseas orders
• the process for overseas service of judicial documents
• the process for the recovery abroad of maintenance.

The exposure draft Regulations cover these same topics and remain substantively the same as the existing Regulations. However, as the existing Regulations were made in 1984, drafting changes have been necessary to modernise, clarify and update provisions, and ensure they continue to operate effectively. Those parts of the new Regulations where more substantive changes are being made are outlined in the accompanying consultation paper.

Download the exposure draft: Family Law Regulations 2024

• Exposure draft [PDF 960KB]
• Exposure draft [DOCX 459KB]

Note: the exposure draft Regulations may not necessarily reflect the scope of the final Regulations that are made after this consultation process.

Download our consultation paper

We have prepared a consultation paper to support the exposure draft Regulations. This consultation paper provides information on substantive changes within the exposure draft and we strongly encourage you to refer to this paper in conjunction with the exposure draft, when preparing your feedback.

• Consultation paper [PDF 410KB]
• Consultation paper [DOCX 120KB]

Who we want to hear from

We welcome feedback from interested stakeholders, particularly legal professionals who regularly engage with the existing Regulations. Your feedback and perspectives are invaluable to ensuring the effective operation of the new Regulations.