[1] It has four parts and its main amendments involve how courts define and respond to allegations of child abuse and domestic violence.

[1] The Family Law Legislation Amendment Act 2011 was introduced to the Australian Parliament on 24 March 2011 and came into effect on 7 June 2012.

[3] Charles Pragnell from the National Council for Children Post-Separation argued that this occurred as the provision led to "mothers remain[ing] silent about domestic violence" and judges "seeing the right of shared care as the principle overriding consideration...giving custody of children to convicted pedophiles and violent offenders".

[6] The Family Law Amendment Act 2006 introduced the provision that equal shared responsibility for both parents is the optimal interest of the child.

[6] In the case Martin v Martin [2014] FCCA 2838 the 2011 Family Law Legislation Amendment Act's expansion of the definition of family violence to include repeated stalking meant that the court granted sole parental responsibility to the mother and prevented the father from going to the child's school or home.

[8] The court stated that the father's actions of repeatedly calling the mother late a night, honking his car outside her home and arriving at her children's activities without warning constituted as an "ongoing campaign" of stalking.

[7] By doing so it was revealed that the father had "made clear and unambiguous threats to kill the mother" and had been domestically abusive before, during and after the separation.

[7] However, in the appeal the court argued that, as this breach occurred while the father was undergoing a criminal trial for domestic and sexual abuse that created a "palpable change in the underlying family dynamic", the mother had acted out of a desire to protect the child from harm.

[9] Further, the percentage of family law lawyers who believe the reforms "have resulted in fewer children in shared care arrangements where there is high conflict" has increased from 16% to 42.5% in the same time period.

[9] The Australian Law Reform Commission has critiqued the 2011 Family Law Legislation Amendment Act's failure to address its two of its major recommendations, first, the removal of the mandatory attendance of both parents at Family Dispute Resolution Services and, second, the introduction of a clarification that equal shared parental responsibility does not refer to equal time.

[12] The 2018 Act removed the twenty-one day time limit on the "revival, variation or suspension of family law orders by state and territory courts" in cases involving family violence and specified that a court needn't give an explanation of an order or injunction to a child if receiving such an explanation is not in the child's best interest.