
The Voluntary Assisted Dying Bill, legalising voluntary euthanasia, was defeated in the Tasmanian House of Assembly 13 votes to 11 following speaker-at-the-time Michael Polley’s vote. This is a far narrower margin compared to 2009, where similar legislation was defeated by 15 votes to 7…
Tasmania’s lower house has rejected voluntary euthanasia by the narrowest of margins…
The New South Wales Health Minister and Attorney-General have taken opposing sides over proposed legislation to change the legal definition of an unborn child. MPs will be allowed a conscience vote on the private member’s bill, which is designed to allow criminal liability for the death of a foetus that is at least 20 weeks old. Currently, charges can only be laid over the injury or death of the mother…
As more families become “international” many are faced with the dilemma that on divorce (or separation) one partner wants to go back home with the children and the other wants them to stay here. This article outlines what to consider if you’re thinking about leaving Australia…
A SINGLE mother will have to repay more than $15,000 in Centrelink overpayments she claimed while working for an insurance company…
Whether it’s tweet-happy judges or YouTube-wielding family law litigants, social media is dramatically reshaping our court system. Two judges speak candidly about the many challenges that social media poses to our courts and the unprecedented opportunity it offers for a more transparent legal system…
Tasmania may have been the last Australian state to legalize homosexuality, and the first to introduce civil unions, but it has now voted to allow same-sex couples to adopt non-biological children for the first time…
A Family Court judge has awarded a man equal shared parental responsibility of a two-year-old boy he fathered as a sperm donor, in a landmark ruling. The decision was handed down despite despite Victorian law stating that sperm donors are not to be considered the father, because the father and child had already formed a bond with the approval of the mother…
The grandmother has won the right to raise the eight-year-old Queensland girl interstate after she complained of being verbally “menaced” by her son over caring for the child…
A group of Australian doctors opposed to the introduction of euthanasia and assisted suicide has written to all South Australian House of Assembly MPs condemning Hon. Bob Such’s ‘Ending Life with Dignity Bill’ 2013…