Commonwealth Numbered Regulations - Explanatory Statements

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FAMILY LAW REGULATIONS (AMENDMENT) 1992 NO. 404

STATUTORY RULES 1992 No. 404

Issued by the Authority of the Minister for Justice

Family Law Act 1975

Family Law Regulations (Amendment)

Subsection 125(1) of the Family Law Act 1975 (the Act) empowers the Governor-General to make regulations for the purposes of the Act.

The purposes of the amendments to the Family Law Regulations (the Principal Regulations) are :

•       To alter parentage testing procedures laid down by Regulation 21D of the principal Regulations to facilitate the interstate transport of blood samples for DNA parentage testing by testing laboratories.

•       to update a list of State and Territory child welfare laws in Schedule 5 of the Principal Regulations for the purpose of ensuring that orders made under the Family Law Act do not override custody and guardianship orders made tinder child welfare laws.

•       to correct a drafting error in Regulation 12BA of the Principal Regulations which at present contains two paragraphs 12BA(b).

Details of the proposed Family Law Regulations are as follows:

Regulation 1 - is a formal provision.

Regulation 2 - Section 60 of the Act defines "child welfare office" to be a person who holds or performs the duties of a prescribed office of a State or Territory which has responsibilities in relation to a child welfare law. Regulation 12BA which was inserted into the Family Law Regulations (the Principal Regulations) by Statutory Rule No 287 prescribes officers in the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory for the purposes of section 60. That regulation contains a typographical error in that two paragraphs are entitled (b). Regulation 2 amends Regulation 12BA of the Principal Regulations by changing the second paragraph (b) to paragraph (c).

Regulation 3 - Section 66W of the Act enables a court hearing a matter under the Act to order parentage tests where the parentage of a child is at issue in proceedings before it. Subsection 66W(9) provides that the regulations may make provision for the carrying out of parentage testing procedures and the preparation of reports pursuant thereto. Regulation 21D of the Principal Regulations provides for the blood collected from a parent for DNA blood testing to be available for testing at the laboratory no later than 24 hours after its collection. Regulation 3 amends Regulation 21D of the Principal Regulations to extend this period from 24 hours to 3 days if certain conditions of storage and temperature are maintained during the transportation of the blood to the laboratory.

Regulation 4 - Section 60H of the Family Law Act provides that the Family Court is not to make custody, guardianship or access orders in relation to a child who is subject to custody or guardianship orders under a State or Territory 'child welfare law'. Section 60 of the Act provides that a 'child welfare law' means a law of a State or Territory prescribed in regulations made under the Act. Regulation 12B of the Family Law Regulations provides that the laws specified in Schedule 5 to the Family Law Regulations are child welfare laws for the purposes of the definition of child welfare law in section 60 of the Act. Regulation 4 amends Schedule 5 of the Principal Regulations to update the list of State and Territory child welfare laws to refer to new provisions in the New South Wales Disability and Guardian Act and in the Victorian Children and Young Persons Act.

(Authorised by the Minister for Justice).