Family Law Amendment Bill 2023 and Family Law Amendment (Information Sharing) Bill 2023

The majority voted in favour of a motion to pass the bills. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read them for a third time. This means that the bill will now return to the House of Representatives, where our MPs will decide on whether they agree with the Senate amendments and so allow the bills to become law.

What does the bill do?

According to the bills digest summary:

• The Bill will amend the Family Law Act 1975, the stated purpose being to make the family law system safer and simper, and ensure the best interests of children are placed at its centre.

• The amendments implement a number of recommendations from the Australian Law Reform Commission’s 2019 report into the state of Australia’s family law system and elements of the Government Response to the 2021 Joint Select Committee inquiry into Australia’s Family Law System.

• There are 9 Schedules to the Bill which include:

• the redrafting of provisions to do with the enforcement of parenting orders and the protection of personal information in family court proceedings (Schedules 2 and 6)

• amendments aimed at acknowledging Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander notions of family and kinship (Schedule 3)

• changes to the role of the Independent Children’s Lawyer (Schedule 4)

• the introduction of a new ‘harmful proceedings order’ power to prevent a vexatious litigant from filing and serving new applications without first obtaining leave (Schedule 5)

• a regulation making power with respect to family report writers (Schedule 7).

• The key amendments are in Schedule 1, which amends the legislative framework for making parenting orders, including changes to the section which covers the factors to be considered when making parenting arrangements in the best interests of the child. The Schedule also repeals the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility and the mandatory consideration of certain times arrangements for parents. There is a strong focus amongst stakeholders on these amendments, many supporting them, some suggesting improvements and some raising concerns about their impact.

• A number of stakeholders, including the Law Council of Australia, emphasised that proper resourcing must follow reform, particularly as several of the proposed reforms may have significant funding implications.