Navigating the New Australian Family Law – Family Violence with economic & financial abuse; Mortgage Stress; Superannuation & Pets ; Divorce & attendance requirements; Property Markets, Immigration and children, AI in the Courtroom; and Digital Family Violence ..
Australian family law is entering one of its most consequential periods of change. Phoenix Law and Associates multilingual lawyers are acutely aware of sweeping legislative reform, a surging property market, continued immigration, rapid digital asset adoption, and the disruptive rise of artificial intelligence, and how it is likely to affect you. CALL +61731800908 | email – info@phoenix-law.com.au | Level 8, 320 Adelaide Street, Brisbane
Phoenix Law & Associates multilingual lawyers will work with recent migrants or where there are strong overseas ties, to understand property held outside Australia; the immigration status of both parties and any children; outstanding visa conditions that may affect relocation rights; and whether r any overseas divorce or parenting proceedings have been initiated.
- The Family Law Amendment Act 2024: A New Operating Framework
The Family Law Amendment Act 2024 (Cth), mostly took effect on 10 June 2025. Described as the most extensive overhaul of the Act since its commencement in 1975, its reforms are now fully embedded in the daily operation of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (FCFCOA).
- Family Violence in Financial Proceedings
For the first time, the legislation expressly requires courts to consider family violence — including economic and financial abuse — when making property and financial orders. Conduct such as controlling a partner’s access to bank accounts, forcing signature of financial documents, or systematically limiting a partner’s earning capacity must now be factored into the s 79 property adjustment exercise. Phoenix Law & Associates will gather evidence of economic abuse at the earliest stage. Subpoenas for bank records, forensic accountant instructions, and detailed affidavit evidence about financial control will now be central.
- The Abolition of Add-Backs
The judicial discretion to ‘add back’ dissipated, wasted or concealed assets to the notional property pool has been significantly curtailed following the Full Court’s decision in Shinohara [2025] FedCFamC1A 126 and the legislative clarification of s 79(3). Courts now focus on existing property. Where a party has dissipated assets — gambling losses, premature transfers to relatives, or payments from joint accounts — the practical remedy is no longer automatic reinstatement to the pool.
- Superannuation and Pets
The reforms include simplified mechanisms for superannuation splitting, reducing procedural complexity in straightforward matters. Separately, the Act now expressly empowers courts to make orders about the ownership of companion animals, recognising that disputes over pets carry genuine emotional and financial weight for separating parties.
- Divorce Procedure
As of 10 June 2025, attendance requirements for uncontested divorce applications have been standardised, and the process for sole applicants substantially streamlined. The practical effect is that routine divorce matters increasingly resolve without any court appearance, freeing practitioner capacity for more complex contested proceedings.
- The Australian Property Market: Elevated Values, Elevated Stakes
National dwelling values rose approximately 7.5% in 2025, with Perth (13%), Brisbane (12%) and Adelaide (9%) recording particularly strong gains. Darwin led all capital cities at approximately 18% growth. Sydney and Melbourne grew more modestly at around 4% and 2% respectively. KPMG projects annual rent growth of around 3.5% through 2026 and 2027, while the total outstanding mortgage book has grown to AUD 2.54 trillion — 6.7% higher than a year earlier.
- Impact on Property Pool Valuations
Rising prices across most markets means that the matrimonial property pool in the average matter has increased in nominal value — but so too has the complexity of valuing it fairly. Where the primary asset is the family home, the difference between a valuation obtained at separation and one obtained at the time of hearing can now be significant. Binding Financial Agreements and consent orders must be drafted with care to specify which valuation date applies, and independent valuations should be obtained as close to the relevant date as possible. In markets where prices are moving quickly — particularly Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide — earlier valuations may understate or overstate the pool significantly. Consider seeking court-appointed valuers or agreed valuers in contested property matters to minimise delay between valuation and orders.
2.2 Mortgage Stress and Interim Arrangements
Tight vacancy rates (nationally around 1.1%) and sustained rent increases are placing real pressure on separating couples who cannot immediately afford to live apart. Applications for interim property orders and injunctions restraining the sale or encumbrance of the family home are likely to increase. Practitioners should be ready to advise clients on the interaction between spousal maintenance obligations and mortgage repayment responsibilities during interim periods.
2.3 Investment Property Portfolios
The investor loan segment grew 18.9% year-on-year in 2025. Many separating couples hold multiple investment properties, often with differing loan structures, tenancies in place, and tax implications. The disposition of investment portfolios in property settlements will require closer collaboration with financial advisers, accountants and mortgage brokers to ensure orders are practically capable of implementation without triggering unexpected CGT events or lender refusals.
- Immigration Policy: Multicultural Families and Cross-Border Complexity
Australia’s permanent migration program remains at 185,000 places for 2025-26, with approximately 28% — some 52,500 places — allocated to the family stream, including 40,500 partner visa places. The student visa planning level has been raised from 270,000 to 295,000 for 2026, and the overall profile of arrivals continues to diversify. New arrivals continue to cluster in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, bringing with them complex family structures, overseas assets, and cross-jurisdictional legal issues.
- Cross-Jurisdictional Property and Child Arrangements
The sustained volume of skilled and family migration means that a growing proportion of our clients hold property overseas, have family members in multiple countries, and are navigating the intersection of Australian family law with foreign legal systems. The enforcement of Australian parenting orders internationally — and the risk of international parental child abduction — requires practitioners to be conversant with the Hague Convention on Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the interaction of Australian and foreign court orders.
Phoenix Law & Associates will work with recent migrants or where there are strong overseas ties, to understand property held outside Australia; the immigration status of both parties and any children; outstanding visa conditions that may affect relocation rights; and whether any overseas divorce or parenting proceedings have been initiated.
- Visa Status and Family Violence
Partner visa holders who are experiencing family violence may be entitled to continue their visa pathway independently of their sponsor under the family violence provisions.
- Sponsorship Obligations and Coercive Control
The immigration sponsor relationship can itself be a vehicle for coercive control — where a sponsoring partner withholds support, threatens visa cancellation, or uses a temporary visa holder’s immigration dependency as leverage. The expanded definition of family violence now in the Family Law Act is relevant .
- Digital Assets and Cryptocurrency: From Edge Case to Mainstream
As of early 2025, approximately one in three Australian adults had owned some form of cryptocurrency. The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 is moving cryptocurrency exchanges and custody providers into the mainstream financial services regulatory framework, requiring Australian Financial Services Licences and introducing custody and disclosure obligations. Australian courts are increasingly willing to recognise digital assets as property — and are taking a firm stance on non-disclosure.
- Disclosure Obligations
The Family Law Act requires full and frank disclosure of all assets, including digital assets. Courts now routinely expect cryptocurrency holdings to be itemised in the schedule of assets. Failure to disclose — or the concealment of holdings through wallet transfers or conversion — will be treated as a serious breach, carrying consequences in the exercise of judicial discretion under s 79. The abolition of add-backs noted above makes this more, not less, important: the remedy for non-disclosure now lies primarily in adverse findings and cost orders rather than pool reconstruction.
- Valuation Challenges
Cryptocurrency is inherently volatile. A Bitcoin holding valued at AUD 150,000 at separation may be worth AUD 80,000 or AUD 230,000 by the time of hearing. Practitioners must address the valuation date expressly in any orders or agreement dealing with crypto. Options include orders requiring conversion to AUD at a specified time, percentage-based splits of the holding at a nominated date or agreed use of a forensic accountant who can assess blockchain records.
Where this is relevant Phoenix Law & Associates may recommend engaging a blockchain forensic specialists early in any matter where crypto assets are in issue. They can trace wallet addresses, identify undisclosed exchanges and provide court-admissible valuation reports. The cost is routinely recoverable as a disbursement in complex property proceedings.
- NFTs, DeFi and Emerging Asset Classes
Non-fungible tokens, interests in decentralised finance protocols and staking rewards are increasingly appearing in asset schedules. Courts are applying established property principles but the practical challenge of identifying, accessing and dividing these assets in any enforcement context remains substantial. Our practice should be developing standard discovery questionnaires that specifically probe these asset classes.
- Artificial Intelligence: Opportunity, Obligation and Risk
- The National AI Plan and Legal Regulation
On 2 December 2025, the Australian Government released its National AI Plan 2025, the most comprehensive statement to date on AI governance in Australia. The Plan does not introduce a standalone AI Act — Australia continues to rely on existing laws including the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Consumer Law — but it establishes the Australian AI Safety Institute, operational from early 2026 with AUD 29.9 million in funding, to monitor AI risks and provide independent technical analysis.
From 10 December 2026, new automated decision-making transparency obligations under APP 1.7, 1.8 and 1.9 of the Privacy Act will require entities to disclose in their privacy policies the types of personal information used in substantially automated decisions that could significantly affect individuals. This has implications for practitioners using AI-assisted matter management, document review or predictive tools.
- AI in the Courtroom: The Current Rules
Every superior court in Australia now has guidelines or practice directions addressing generative AI use. The position across jurisdictions is broadly consistent:
• Generative AI must not be used to generate the content of affidavits, witness statements or character references without leave of the court.
• Expert evidence must not be AI-generated without leave.
• Any submission or document prepared with AI assistance must be disclosed.
• Practitioners remain personally responsible for the accuracy of all filed documents, regardless of whether preparation was delegated to a paralegal or AI tool.
The FCFCOA has not yet issued a formal Practice Direction but has made its position clear through case law. In Mertz & Mertz (No 3) [2025] FedCFamC1A 222, a solicitor whose paralegal had used AI to prepare court documents — without her knowledge — was found to bear full responsibility for the resulting inaccuracies. The Court declined to accept ignorance of the tool’s use as a mitigating factor.
- Social Media Evidence and Digital Family Violence
AI-generated content — deepfakes, fabricated text messages, synthetic audio — is now an evidentiary concern in family law proceedings, particularly in contested parenting matters involving allegations of coaching, harassment or threats. The Children’s Online Privacy Code, expected to be in force by December 2026, will affect how social media platforms handle data relating to minors. Practitioners should be alert to the possibility of fabricated digital evidence and advise clients accordingly.
6. Practical Implications for Our Practice
6.1 Client Intake and First Conference
The broadened landscape of issues — overseas assets, crypto holdings, immigration status, digital abuse — means first conference checklists require updating. We recommend revising our standard intake forms to capture:
• Cryptocurrency and digital asset holdings (wallets, exchanges, NFTs)
• Immigration visa status of both parties and children
• Overseas property or financial interests
• History of financial or economic abuse, including digital or technology-facilitated control
• Social media accounts and any relevant digital communications or content
NOTE WELL – This update does not constitute legal advice. The law stated is current as at June 2026. Specific client matters will be assessed on their individual facts.
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