Defacto couples, including same sex couples, in Queensland shortly to have their financial matters decided in the Family Court…

Legislation has been passed by the Senate to allow parties to a defacto relationship who meet the required criteria to bring an application for adjustment of interests in property or an application for spousal maintenance in either the Family Court or the Federal Magistrates Court.

The legislation will allow defacto couples to claim spousal maintenance, enter into financial agreements, take advantage of superannuation splitting, and obtain orders and injunctions binding on third parties. 

The criteria to be eligible to bring your claim under this new legislation, once it has passed the Senate and has commenced will be:

1. At least one party must have the required geographical connection with a “participating jurisdiction”.  At present New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and both Territories are all “participating jurisdictions”.
2. The defacto relationship broke down after the commencement of the Act.
3. The defacto relationship is one of at least two years.  There will be some exceptions to this.
4. The Application must be brought within two years of separation.  Again, there will be provisions for exceptions to this with the leave of the Court. 

The legislation will finally enable defacto partners to have both their property and parenting matters dealt with by the same Court.  This legislation has been long awaited by both clients and lawyers and should make the resolution of those issues easier to deal with for defacto couples.

The amendments allowing defacto spouses to bring claims for spousal maintenance and to split their super and to have super treated as “property” available for division between the parties to the relationship will have important, practical implications for many defacto couples.

The legislation is awaiting assent and we expect it to commence shortly.

Cassandra Pullos
28.10.08