The spate of cases raises questions about the legal rights a child born to an overseas surrogate has in Australia, and what rights Australians who engage in surrogacy agreements have in Thailand and other countries..

The Attorney-General, George Brandis, has released the Family Law Council’s report on Parentage and the Family Law Act, which calls for a coordinated international response to the issue of overseas surrogacy arrangements…

The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) has reversed its long held view, expressed in a number of private rulings, that the deemed dividend rules contained in Division 7A of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (ITAA 1936) do not apply where family companies distribute cash to either the husband or the wife as a result of Family Court Orders…

A lawyer representing schoolgirl Layla Leisha has obtained a Family Court order allowing a public appeal for information about her whereabouts…

The new laws declare that de facto couples who satisfy basic criteria – such as being in the relationship for at least two years – will be treated in the Family Court in the same way as a married couple. It also applies to same-sex couples…

With the ATO’s information-gathering powers seemingly ever-expanding, the “long arm of the law” is taking on a whole new meaning. But that long arm doesn’t always reach as far as the Commissioner might like…

MOTHERS are faking domestic violence to secure custody of their children, a parliamentary inquiry has been told…

A LAW that forces married couples to divorce if one partner changes sex is “cruel” and should be axed, according to Greens upper house MP from both NSW and South Australia…

A mother who abducted her three-year-old son and secreted him to Europe for 2½ years has been handed a 28-day good ­behaviour bond by the ­District Court of NSW…

Justice Diana Bryant said access to legal aid was already a problem in the Family Court, and she was worried about the impact of a further $15 million in Commonwealth funding cuts outlined in the budget…