CHILDREN AFFECTED BY DIVORCE

A detailed Summary of CHILDREN AFFECTED BY DIVORCE

On the 11th of June, 1996, the Family Law Reform Act 1995 came into effect amending certain sections of the Family Law Act 1975, in particular, those relating to the care of children involved in divorce situations. The object of these amendments, according to the new act, was to ensure two things. Firstly, "that the children may receive adequate and proper parenting to help them achieve their full potential," and secondly, "to ensure that parents fulfil their duties, and meet their responsibilities, concerning the care, welfare and development of their children." These recent amendments are clearly a positive step forward for family law because the law has recognised that the child is the only important factor in a divorce and that it is crucial that the rights of the child are protected. To fairly evaluate the effectiveness of these recent amendments in protecting the interests of the child, the social implications of the act, the principles taken into account when deciding a case, the impact on stakeholders, and criticisms of the act must all be taken into consideration.

In order to ensure that the child's rights are protected, the courts aim is to ens

ure that parental responsibility survives any changes in the nature of the child's parent's relationship. Parental responsibility relates to "all the duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which, by law, parents have in relation to children." When deciding a case involving a child in the event of a separation between the child's parents, the child's best interests are now the court's paramount consideration. The concepts access, custody, and guardianship have been replaced in the amendments by contact, residence, and joint parental responsibility.

The stakeholders affected by the recent amendments in the case of Holswich v. O'Farrell are the child and his mother and father. The impact on the child from the court's decision would have been minimal because the child was still an infant at the time of the case and the ruling did not result in any major changes in the child's lifestyle. The case also had a minimal impact on the mother because there was no change in the mother's situation as a result of the ruling either. The father, on the other hand, was not granted an increase in contact with his son, however, the judge stated that the only reason for the contact granted to the father was to lay a foundation for future contact, so the father can look forward to considerably more contact with his son as he gets older.

Overall, it is difficult to judge the effectiveness of the amendments to the Family Law Act 1975 because it is impossible to measure how well a child's best interests have been served. However, if the Family Court of Australia has adequately implemented the changes then one would expect that the amendments have been effective in improving the system of determining what is in the child's best interests. Therefore the court's final ruling with regards to the contact, residence, and maintenance of the child will be the option which is best for the child. In conclusion, when all of the factors have been taken into consideration, it appears that the recent amendments will result in a step forward for the way in which the rights of children are protected by the court's decisions. Whether or not the courts will make use of this improved system, however, is another question.

The reason for the law now officially recognising and encouraging agreements made by parents regarding contact with the child and the residence and maintenance of the child is because it is clearly better f

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Approximate Word count = 1626
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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