A big year of change - Updates to Family Violence in Family Law
2025 has brought with it several significant updates to the Family Law Act 1975 (the “Act”).
The updated primarily impact property settlement and spousal maintenance in Part 8 of the Act.
This article covers amendments to the definition of Family Violence and the recognition of Economic and Financial Abuse in property settlement matters.
The Family Court is tasked with only making orders in property matters when it is just and equitable. In assessing what orders the Court should make, the step-by-step assessment is now as follows:
The Court will identify the legal and equitable rights, or interest in any property, assets or liabilities and create a property pool. It will then determine each party’s contributions to these assets, property and liabilities before, during and after the relationship.
The Court will then quantify these contributions to determine each party’s percentage-based entitlement of the property pool.
Adjustments to the percentage-based entitlement can be made to account for the current and future circumstances of the parties or their future needs.
The Court will then make final orders that give effect to the overall percentage split.
Recognition of Economic and Financial Abuse in definition of Family Violence.
The recent legislative amendments acknowledge the impact that economic and financial abuse has on relationships. The Act now expressly includes economic and financial abuse in the definition of family violence, and it also provides standalone examples of what economic and financial abuse can look like in s4A(2A) of the Act.
The examples include denying financial autonomy, unreasonably withholding financial support, financial coercion, misleading conduct related to an agreement and improper conduct surrounding the cultural practice of dowry.
The intention behind these legislative amendments is to acknowledge the wide range of behaviors that constitute economic abuse. They also establish that it is no longer necessary to establish financial dependency, rather the focus is diverted to the behaviour of a party accused of perpetrating abuse and withholding support.
This is not an exhaustive list, and it is anticipated as the Court begins to issue judgments in relation to this amendment that further examples will be discussed.
Impact of Family Violence on Property and Financial Settlements
The amendments also recognise the impact family violence has on the party’s ability to make financial contributions to relationships, and how this impacts their future needs.
This isn’t a new concept, rather an entrenchment of long-standing principles that have developed through various cases for decades. The most prominent case that is cited in relation to the impact of family violence is Kennon & Kennon (1997) FLC 92-757. The Court in Kennon & Kennon considered that adjustments related to family violence should only apply in exceptional circumstances.
The amendments require the court to consider the impact of family violence:
When assessing the parties’ contributions during the relationship,
When assessing the parties’ current circumstances; and
When assessing applications for spousal maintenance orders.
It is anticipated that the application of these amendments will be more in line with the comments of Aldridge J in Martell & Martell [2023] FedCFamC1A 71 at [22]:
“The prevalence of family violence is wide and artificial barriers to its recognition, such as trying to limit its recognition in property cases to exceptional or narrow cases, has no basis in principle”
The consensus was that family violence was not being considered in cases where it was relevant, disproportionately impacting victim/survivors. The aim of these amendments is to ensure the impact that family violence has had on parties is considered by parties in property matters both in and out of Court.