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Family Law Act 1975: Summary And Analysis

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Maintenance is a financial; payment made by one spouse to contribute to the care and welfare of the other spouse and/or children of the marriage. A spouse may be obligated to provide maintenance to the other spouse if the proposed payee spouse cannot support themselves and the proposed payer spouse has the capacity to pay. Section 72 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) outlines the guidelines for providing maintenance. Another legal response is the Child Support Scheme (CSS) which has the burden of maintaining child support which falls on the community as social security payment to the custodial parent. The CSS operates on the basis of disparity between parents’ incomes and the number of nights of care each parent has of the child. Over 70% of …show more content…

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) dictates that no child should be subjected to violence and it is the responsibility of the state to protect children from all forms of harm. CROC is the most widely ratified human rights treaty as it covers civil, political, social and cultural rights and requires all states to act in the best interests of the child. The Committee on the Rights of the Child is an independent body that examines the compliance of signatories to the treaty by publishing reports and adverse findings on countries that have failed in their duty. UN can only pressure states to comply, states may have reservations. Australia’s legislation including Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) reflect principles of CROC. Australia is often criticized of its treatment of refugee children in detention centres. The National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014 found the mandatory and prolonged immigration detention of children violates CROC. Commission recommends all children be released from detention in Australia. Migration Act 1958 (Cth) must be amended to ensure children are detained for a short period of time. After the report was published the Australian government released all children kept in mainland detention centres in April 2016, but children in offshore detention centres still remain. Child abduction is common in separations between …show more content…

Domestic legislation allows for any married couple to get a divorce if their marriage is beyond reconciliation as a direct result of the addition of the ‘no fault’ divorce. Past legislation and non-legal measures such as Kids Helpline that address the needs of care of children is somewhat ineffective in dealing with conflict in parenting agreements which leads to children left exposed to risk of harm. The government is responsive to the maintenance of children by their non-custodial parent but in some cases child support payments are unpaid leaving the child vulnerable to a lack of care due to financial instability. Non-legal responses are available to conflict this but these are not accessible in all situations. International cases receive more media coverage than most domestic cases but the media as a non-legal response is somewhat ineffective as shown in the Sally Faulkner child abduction case. International law also has limitations in enforcing the care and protection of children but steps have been taken to combat this in the form of the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Overall, the legal and non-legal responses to issues involving children are lacking efficiency in areas specific to the care and protection of children domestically and

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