Fairness in Child Support (F.I.C.S.)'s next meeting

 

Fairness in Child Support (F.I.C.S.)'s next meeting

Fairness in Child Support (F.I.C.S.)'s meetings are held on the first Thursday of each month (except for January). The meetings commence at 7.30 PM and are held at the Coniston Community Hall, Coniston (which is located between the Coniston Railway Station and the Phoenix Theatre). Coniston is a suburb of Wollongong.

Our next meeting will be held on Thursday 6 February 2025 (there is no meeting in January 2025 due to school holidays). Please contact John Flanagan on 0415 899 574 for further details.

Everyone is welcome. There is no charge for attendance.

Regards

 

John Flanagan,

Secretary,

Fairness In Child Support.

http://fairnessinchildsupport.blogspot.com/

 Family Law Amendment Bill 2024.

The new Family Law Amendment Bill 2024 was passed by Parliament on 28 November 2024. It proposes to use family violence issues to provide a greater transfer of the property (and superannuation) from one party to the other party. This is after divorce or separation.

As a result, we are confident that unproven family violence accusations (and many other similar unsubstantiated reasons) will be very often used to get a bigger property settlement for one of the parties.

These new legislative changes to the Family Law Act will no doubt create further litigation. Due to greater testing of this unproven evidence, there will be increased costs, further delays and more impact on the participants.  

The Bill had been rushed through Parliament at a breakneck speed. This is as compared to other inquiries. 

As a result, there were only 33 submissions on the Bill. Of these 33 submissions, 29 of this number were published and supported the Bill. A further 3 submissions were marked "confidential" and were unpublished. That left our submission as being the only one published that did not support the Bill.

One can only speculate on the motives behind the 29 other published submissions that did support the Bill.

 

Family Law Amendment Act 2023.

With the passing of the Family Law Amendment Act 2023, Labor has removed the equal shared parental responsibility provision from family law. The amendments also effectively do away with shared parenting. This will lead to more disconnected relationships and unjust outcomes for the non-custodial parent. However the non-custodial parent, i.e the one without the parental responsibility, will still have the responsibility for paying child support! 

Incredibly four senior Liberal Senators (viz Askew, Cash, Henderson and Rushton) actually voted for the Bill. The remaining Liberals and Nationals abstained.

Labor has a history of anti-family efforts.

Labor brought in the Family Law Act in 1975, the child support legislation in 1988 and 1989, domestic violence changes and the removal of penalties for perjury in 2011 and now the removal of equal shared parent responsibility and more in 2023. Further anti-family legislation is happening in 2024, with regard to property and superannuation.   

We made a submission on the Family Law Amendment Bill 2023 to the Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee's inquiry. However the Bill was passed by Parliament. The amended legislation then became effective on 6 May 2024.