2009
| Author | Kaspiew, Rae; Gray, Matthew; Weston, Ruth; Moloney, Lawrie; Hand, Kelly; Qu, Lixia |
|---|---|
| Date | 2009 |
| Source/Publisher | Australian Institute of Family Studies |
| Link(s) | https://aifs.gov.au/publications/evaluation-2006-family-law-reforms/executive-summary |
| Subjects | Government policy |
Changes to the Australian family law system in 2006 were designed to reduce separations, encourage greater involvement by both parents in children’s lives, protect children from violence and abuse, reduce litigation about children through improved information and dispute resolution services, and improve access to other family services. This was to be achieved through introducing a presumption of shared parental responsibility, requiring separating parents to attend family dispute resolution prior to going to court (with some exceptions, including family violence), and establishing family relationship centres to offer advice, information and access to services. In evaluating the impact of these changes, this review found increased use of relationship services and a decline in parental recourse to courts. However, the many families troubled by violence, safety concerns, mental health problems and drug and alcohol addiction continue to present complex challenges to the system, including determining whether family dispute resolution in appropriate. Responses need to address the wider issues, not just the parenting ones, particularly where child safety is concerned and ensure that the wellbeing of children remains of paramount importance.
Related ItemsCopyright With the exception of AIFS branding, the Commonwealth Coat of Arms, content provided by third parties, and any material protected by a trademark, all textual material on Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) websites is provided under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia (CC-BY 3.0)(link is external) licence. The details of the relevant licence conditions are available on the Creative Commons website(link is external), as is the full legal code for the CC BY 3.0 AU licence(link is external). Republishing material from our website If you copy, distribute or use material for commercial and non-commercial purposes, you must acknowledge the Commonwealth of Australia as the copyright holder of the work. Content that is copyrighted by a third party is subject to the licensing arrangements of the original owner. Please note that some material may be released under more restrictive terms. Generally these will be publications that pre-date our use of Creative Commons licensing. Where material contains a copyright notice or licensing terms that are not CC-BY 3.0 compliant, the notice or those terms take precedence over the licence. Before you reproduce any material from our website that contains a copyright notice or licensing terms that are not CC-BY 3.0 compliant, please contact us at AIFS Copyright. Commenting When you submit a comment to this website, you retain copyright in it. By submitting a comment to this website you agree to make it available to the rest of the world under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia licence(link is external). If you have submitted a comment, but are unaware of this policy and unhappy about it, please contact us and we can remove your comment from our system. Use of images Unless otherwise stated, all images (including background images, icons and illustrations) on the AIFS website are copyrighted by their original owners. Use of the coat of arms The terms under which the Commonwealth Coat of Arms can be used are detailed on the It?s an Honour(link is external) website. Contact us Please contact us if you have any questions or requests relating to material presented on the AIFS website.