Under the Commonwealth law a spouse had to establish one of the 14 grounds for divorce set out in the Act, including adultery, desertion, cruelty, habitual drunkenness, imprisonment and insanity.
[4] In reality, the system was very expensive and humiliating for the spouses, necessitating appointment of barristers, often private detectives, collection of evidence, obtaining witness statements, photographs and hotel receipts, etc.
Couples no longer needed to show grounds for divorce, but instead, just that their relationship had suffered an irreconcilable breakdown.
However, the states referred these powers to the Commonwealth and, until the 2006 amendments to the law, were all located under Chapter VII of the Act.
The Act requires courts to have regard to the 'need to protect the rights of children and promote their welfare' in any matter under the legislation.
Although the term custody often refers to where children live, the concept was abolished in 1995 with the Family Law Reform Act.
[8] Parental responsibility is the ability to make decisions that affect the day-to-day and long-term care and welfare of the child, and can include things such as what school they attend and what their name is.
Because of the limitation of Commonwealth power, until 1 March 2009 the Family Court could adjudicate on a property dispute if it arose out of only a matrimonial relationship.
A standard s.79 property adjustment,[16] has 4 steps: More complex questions arise when a party has incurred losses,[17][18] or when assets are held by trusts.
[19] Section 120 of the Act abolished the actions for criminal conversation, damages for adultery and enticement of a party to a marriage, but it did not change the law relating to breach of promise.
In the most extreme cases, as confirmed by the 2006 Amendments, this can include sentences of imprisonment (up to 12 months), fines, work orders, bonds, and the like.
The Act recognises the need to preserve and protect the institution of marriage as the union between 2 persons, to the exclusion of all others voluntarily entered into for life.
[22] The Federal Circuit Court of Australia holds jurisdiction to handle the dissolution of same sex marriages (i.e. divorces) through Part VI of the Act.
The Act has clearly, over time, been one of the most controversial pieces of Australian legislation and has been subject to numerous changes and amendments since its enactment.
A number of amendments have reflected the political climate of the times: centre-left Australian governments, such as those led by the Australian Labor Party, strengthened the relevancy of non-financial contribution of the stay-at-home mother in property matters; centre-right governments, such as those led by the Liberal Party of Australia, have furthered the wishes of fathers' groups by extending the rights and responsibilities in negotiating parenting arrangements.