Michelle Grattan discusses the government’s new family law inquiry, and Australia being banned from the speaking list at the upcoming UN climate change summit.
It seems the driving force behind this new inquiry is Pauline Hanson’s unsupported claim women often make up allegations of domestic violence in family courts.
As the government starts its work on workplace change, it gave Pauline Hanson a win, for past and future favours, making her deputy chair of a joint parliamentary committee into the family law system.
The Australian Law Reform Commission’s report makes a radical new suggestion that federal family courts be abolished. It also recommends changes to laws concerning parenting and property division.
Parents and children rarely put agreements about granny flats in writing and almost never consult a lawyer. But when these arrangements go wrong, the consequences can be disastrous and costly for all.
Who is a child’s legal parent? The question is at the heart of a case due before the High Court this year. It may have implications for children born via IVF or surrogacy, and the people who raise them.
The proposed merger of the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court is intended to address delays and inefficiencies in the system. Experts question, however, how effective the reforms will be.
Until now, Australia was the only country that required youth with gender dysphoria to seek approval from the Family Court for the second stage of hormone treatments.
Daughters across the US feel like their relationship with their father was damaged by their parents’ divorce. Here are steps daughters can take to repair that relationship.
Any reforms must move beyond a focus on administrative processes to acknowledge the lived experiences of child support which can be disguised by formal policy.
Rae Kaspiew, Australian Institute of Family Studies
Separating couples who use the family law system generally have a positive experience - but for a troubled minority, there is still much work to be done.