The amendments to the Family Law Act that came into effect on 1
March 2009 have received much media comment. The Daily Telegraph
article "New de facto laws mean cheats no longer prosper"
by Nick Leys is just one of the numerous press articles which has
unfortunately raised more myth-conceptions about the new
legislation.
I will attempt to explain some of the
'mythconceptions'.
1. The 'new' laws leave cheating husbands open
to divorce-style litigation from their mistresses, who can now
claim income maintenance, property and even superannuation
funds.
The amendments to the Family Law Act have (for some reason known
only to the press media in this country) been dubbed 'mistress
laws'. This is a complete distortion of the truth. The
amendments to the Family Law Act now allow for a uniform system of
dealing with de facto relationships.1 The amendments
allow de facto couples (regardless of their sex) to deal with
property settlement claims in the same Courts as
