Family Law Amendment Bill 2024.

The Family Law Amendment Act 2024 was passed by Parliament on 10 December 2024. This Act amends the Family Law Act 1975. It allows unproven family violence accusations to provide a greater transfer of the property (and superannuation) from one party to the other party. This is after divorce or separation.

These changes become effective on 10 June 2025.

These amendments to the Family Law Act will no doubt create further litigation. This is primarily due to the greater testing of this unproven evidence. As a result, there will be increased costs, further delays and more impact on the participants.  

The Bill had been rushed through Parliament at a breakneck speed on the last day of Parliament for 2024.  

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 A further 3 submissions were marked "confidential" and were unpublished.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.