Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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FAMILY LAW AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 1999 (NO. 2) 1999 NO. 173

STATUTORY RULES 1999 No. 173

ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE ATTORNEY-GENERAL

FAMILY LAW ACT 1975

FAMILY LAW AMENDMENT REGULATIONS 1999 (No. 2)

Subsection 125(1) of the Family Law Act 1975 (the Act) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations prescribing all matters that are required or permitted by the Act or are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act. Subsection 19P(1) of the Act provides that the Regulations may prescribe requirements to be complied with by community mediators and private mediators in relation to the family and child mediation services they provide.

The purpose of Part 5, Division 2 of the Family Law Regulations (the Regulations), which commenced on 11 June 1996, is to govern the qualifications and procedural matters which family and child mediators are required to meet in order to provide family and child mediation under the Act.

The Regulations have been reviewed by the National Alternative Dispute Resolution Advisory Council (NADRAC) and a number of recommendations were made to the Attorney-General in March 1997. In addition, since the making of those recommendations, there have been ongoing developments in the field of family and child mediation which the Government wished to consider thoroughly and in conjunction with the NADRAC recommendations before completing its review of the Regulations.

In the mean time, subregulation 60(3) requires experienced family and child mediators (as defined in the subregulation) who do not meet the tertiary qualifications requirements in subregulations 60(1) and 60(2) to enrol in a course of study of the kind described in subregulation 60(1) by 31 August 1999.

Subregulation 60(4) provides that a person who is providing family and child mediation through a non-profit organisation funded by the Commonwealth or a State or Territory and is substantially providing family and child mediation (paragraph 60(3)(b)) who does not meet these requirements may not continue to provide family and child mediation after 31 August 1999 unless they have complied with subregulation 60(3).

This amendment extends the date by which experienced mediators are required to enrol in an appropriate tertiary course to 31 August 2001. This will enable the more comprehensive review of the regulations within the context of recent developments to have been completed without disadvantaging those mediators affected by subregulation 60(3). At 31 August 2001 the initial Regulations will have been in operation for five years, allowing time for mediation to have become more established in the community as an acceptable alternative form of dispute resolution, and for the community's expectation of professional and high quality services to be realised.

Details of the Regulations are as follows:

Regulation 1 - Name of Regulations

Regulation 1 names the Regulations the Family Law Amendment Regulations 1999 (No. 2).

Regulation 2 - Commencement

Regulation 2 provides that the Regulations commence on 1 September 1999.

Regulation 3 - Amendment of Family Law Regulations 1984

Regulation 3 provides for the Family Law Regulations to be amended as set out in Schedule 1.

Schedule 1 - Amendments

Schedule 1.1 provides for the date for enrolment by an experienced mediator in a course of tertiary study in subparagraph 60(3)(a)(i) to be amended from 31 August 1999 to 31 August 2001.

Schedule 1.2 provides for a consequential amendment to the date in subregulation 60(4) from 31 August 1999 to 31 August 2001.

Note No. 1 provides for the Statutory Rules number for the amending Regulations.

Note No. 2 refers to the date of gazettal.