The Impact of family violence on the division of property

Are you ready? Major Family Law changes now in place. 

Family Law doesn’t stand still for very long and we have the next raft of changes to the Family Law Act that came into effect on 10 June 2025.  The changes will apply to matters other than those where a final hearing was before that date. 

With the Court timelines to such final hearings, in practice that means these changes are relevant in matters that are being negotiated now.

Key changes to the Family Law Act

The changes have come about following various reviews of family law issues between 2017 and 2021 with the key changes being: 

• Confirming in the Family Law Act that the process for determining a property settlement is the 4 step process of: 

1. 1. Identify all property and liabilities of the parties
   2. Assess each party’s contributions to the property pool and to the welfare of the family
   3. Assess the party’s current and future needs
   4. Only make orders that are, in all of the circumstances, just and equitable

• Provide that the economic impacts of family violence will be considered in property and spousal maintenance matters  

• Include in the Family Law Act the duty of disclosure for financial information which is currently contained in the rules  

• Provide for ownership arrangements for pets  

• Some other procedural alterations for the Court.

Family violence and property settlements: A major shift 

Clearly the most significant of these changes is the impact of family violence on property settlements. 

The first component of this change is setting out in the Family Law Act examples of what might constitute economic or financial abuse of a family member, which includes: 

• Unreasonably denying the family member the financial autonomy that the family member would otherwise have had, such as by: 

• • Forcibly controlling the family member’s money or assets, including superannuation, or 

• • Sabotaging the family member’s employment or income or potential employment or income, or  

• • Forcing the family member to take on a financial or legal liability or status, or  

• • Forcibly or without the family members knowledge, accumulating debts in the family member’s name 

• Unreasonably withholding financial support needed to meet the reasonable living expenses of the family member or the family members child  

• Coercion and actions regarding dowry’s.

The changes then insert a new factor that the Court must take into account when considering the future needs of the parties, being the effect of any family violence to which one party has subjected or exposed the other party. 

Additionally, the changes provide that the Court, in determining the contributions of the parties, can take into account the effect of any family violence on the ability of a party to make contributions to the property pool and welfare of the family.  

Previously, family violence was relevant in property matters: 

• Through the case of Kennon which enabled a Court to consider the impact of family violence on contributions but only in “exceptional” cases and the adjustment was usually only modest  

• Through family violence being relevant in the assessment of future needs factors  

The Explanatory Memorandum provided when the bill for these changes was passing through parliament indicated:

“These amendments send a strong message to the community that property settlement outcomes should recognise the effect of family violence on individuals and on the wealth and welfare of the family, where this is relevant. The amendments make clear to the family law courts and parties negotiating outside of the court, that the economic consequences of family violence can be considered when resolving the property and financial aspects of relationship breakdown”.  

While the Court could consider the effect of family violence on property settlements before these changes it is anticipated having these provisions explicitly included in the legislation will mean that family violence will become a more serious factor in determining property settlements.  

So, what does that mean in practice?  

With these changes newly in place, I’m seeing: 

• A need to think very carefully about how any family violence order proceedings are conducted as what happens there could impact property negotiations and proceedings 

• Getting detailed instructions from clients to understand whether what occurred during the relationship falls within the Family Law Act definition of Family Violence  

• Taking more time to understand if family violence impacted contributions during a relationship  

• Turning our minds to whether family violence may impact future needs  

It shall take some time for the Court to make decisions in cases based on these amendments and it will be interesting to then see how the changes are applied.