Family Law Act amendments

268. The Family Law Act was amended in 2023, in response family law system reviews.⁴⁵ Amendments remove the requirement to consider equal shared parental responsibility for children when parents separate. The provision has led to legal misunderstandings which may lead parents agreeing to unsafe/unfair arrangements. The Family Law Act is gender-neutral, without assumptions of parenting roles, or how much time a child should spend with each parent.

Cultural-community divorce

269. The Marriage Act establishes the framework for legal marriages in Australia, including requirements for marriages to be validly solemnised under Australian law, and for foreign marriages to be legally recognised under Australian law. Australian law provides for no-fault divorce for dissolution of legal marriages. This process is regulated by the Family Law Act.
270. It may be that a legal marriage is dissolved (divorce under the Family Law Act), but a cultural or religious marriage continues in effect, pursuant to relevant cultural customs or religious practice. Successive Australian governments have not supported recommendations within 2001's Family Law Council's Report. There are concerns amendments would undermine concepts of no-fault divorce.
271. Australians are entitled to express and practise their religion and beliefs, without interference, as long as those practices are within the framework of Australian law. Australia has a legal tradition in which secular law is separate from religious law and applies to everyone equally.