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Australian Family Law

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I Introduction
At the end of a marriage or de facto relationship, if partners are unable to come to a mutual agreement relating to property interests, the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) aims to provide the means by which to reach a ‘just and equitable’ financial outcome. Despite this clearly identified aim set out by the legislation, the Family Law Act has to a certain extent been unsuccessful in achieving this objective, because of its failure to acknowledge the consequences of the sexual division of labour in contemporary society.

By reference to the works of various socio-legal scholars and the relevant provisions of the Family Law Act/Marriage Act, this essay will explore the aforementioned failure of the family law in Australia …show more content…
In the context of family, it can be said that the family law itself plays a fundamental role in the development of societal ideas surrounding family. As such, although there is a general view in contemporary society that the nuclear family is in decline, the implications of family law continuing to uphold this type of family whilst also acknowledging the notion of equal partners, needs to be considered.

The existence of these two concepts (nuclear family and equal partnership) within family law, places the legal system at a crossroads whereby a complete acceptance that the nuclear family has been replaced by an egalitarian partnership, will lead the law to ignore the reality of the sexual division of labour. However, if the law continues to uphold the nuclear family form in the face of a changing social reality, this will perpetuate an unequal …show more content…
As per Poole’s contemporary division of matters into public, civil society and private categories, matters which occur in the ‘private’ sphere are said to be beyond the concern of the law. For this reason, the family law primarily only interferes in family relationships when they are coming to an end. The law interferes at this stage of the relationship because it seeks to contain the cost of the break-up to the private sphere, whereby if women and their children do not receive an adequate allocation of property following a break-up, the costs will be passed on to the public sphere in the form of social welfare payments. Historians and feminists alike have critiqued the constructed nature of these categories, which they argue ‘privatize family in a manner that is oppressive for women and

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