The legal system is outdated and lacking in flexibility and understanding to deal with families
and cover all the aspects and rights of different family types, whether they are registered or de
facto relationships, or not related by blood to the family but still consider themselves a part of
the family as well as children of wedlock and children out of wedlock. The legal system also
struggles to keep up with the changing nature of families in modern Australian society. While
laws and regulations are purposely intended to provide stability and protection to Australian
families as well as protect their rights and identities, each member’s responsibilities and deal
with family conflicts, they can sometimes fail to address the diverse types of families and
relationships that exist in modern “multicultural” Australia.
The Australian legal system is based on traditional notions of family, such as the nuclear family
consisting of married heterosexual individuals and their biological children engaged in a loving
relationship for the rest of their lives.This definition fails to address this issues relating to
alternative family arrangements can lead to outdated laws that are insufficient in addressing the
needs and rights of modern families, such as single-parent families, blended families, families
with same-sex parents, communal families, adoptive, foster, childless families, surrogacy, de
facto, extended, sole parent and kinship. Due to the change of the definition of family in the
Australian Bureau of statistics the legal system is now evolving and reforming to suit the
different categories of families that are commonly found in Australian society. In the interesting
case of Re Mark (2003) Fam LR 162 shows that a same sex married couple had a commercial
surrogacy in which Mr X is the biological father, However, the surrogate failed a case in which
she wanted custody of the child however, due to the child best interest” the judge refused then
he gave custody to the couple. This case highlights that the legal system does keep up with
modern society, even if the written laws don’t reflect this.
When it comes to the Family Law Act in the context of marriage and divorce, it may not always
recognize or provide for the break up of non-traditional marriages. For blended families it will be
difficult for couples who are separated and share time periods with their child. So if the blended
families were to faill and the stepmother was pregnant with her ex husband's child, this will
complicate the custody and child maintenance payments on the family as well as impact the
family’s emotional wellbeing as well as economic well being, especially financially if the father
that had his other children to care and provide for has to pay child maintenance. This also will
impact the families access to adequate standards of living and the educational requirements
due to the pressure opposed on one side of the family. If those issues remain unfixed then it will
lead to escalated legal complexities and inequalities, especially regarding issues such as
property division, child custody, and spousal support. However, the Act does put children as the
first priority, irrelevant of the relationship status of their parents, so in this way, the law does
respond to family challenges.
Furthermore, the legal system is lacking in differentiating between the parentage of an individual
in society and individual parental rights which creates a complex issue regarding the various
evolution of families and different family types that are acknowledged by the legal system today
or not. In regards to IVF children, surrogacy, and adoption, laws may vary widely in their ability
to protect the rights of those workers as well as the parents and the children. The legal system
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