From The Guardian in the UK, about the recently released The Family Justice Review report dashing hopes of groups such as Fathers 4 Justice. “Fathers who have gone through divorce or separation will not be granted a legal right to…
Splits harder for families not from ACT
DIVORCING parents who moved to Canberra so their former spouses could further their careers are finding it often difficult to move back home when they split up, family law experts have said. Director of Consensus Family Lawyers in Canberra, Juliette…
Decline in marriage hurting children: report
THE well-being of Australia’s children and young people has declined alarmingly in the past decade – and plunging marriage rates are partly to blame, a major study has found. Its author, Patrick Parkinson, professor of law at the University of…
Abductions by a parent a ‘nightmare’
Two fathers who experienced the “nightmare” of having their sons taken from Australia by former partners have urged the federal government to make the act a crime. Lauchlan Leishman and Ken Thompson fronted a Senate committee in Canberra on Friday,…
Adoption case raises fears over trafficking
A FOUR-year old girl who had been informally given to a Sydney couple under a traditional Samoan adoption arrangement should return to her parents in Samoa, the Family Court has ruled. …the case raised wider issues about the entry of…
The best interests of no one at all
“READERS who have followed Natasha Wallace’s reports of the District Court case dealing with the birth certificate of a 10-year-old girl conceived by artificial insemination could be forgiven for wondering if the world has gone slightly insane. How can a…
Rights of child supreme in abuse cases
“Parties should feel free to raise concerns about risks to children in having contact with another parent and the law should never be an impediment to them.
New support services are family friendly
New arrangements for providing family support services across Australia have been announced jointly by the Minister for Families, the Attorney-General and Parliamentary Secretary for Community Services. Funding of up to $1 billion has been allocated to the Family Support Program…
Report finds violence hard on children
Update on the Family Violence Bill, and the Institute of Criminology report informing the new proposed definition of “child abuse”
New report: Exposure to domestic violence a form of child abuse
Attorney-General Robert McClelland and Minister for Justice Brendan O’Connor today released an Australian Institute of Criminology report Children’s exposure to domestic violence in Australia. “The study finds that there is growing local and international recognition that hearing or seeing domestic violence…