Monday, August 5, 2002
Australian lawmaker pushes for an overhaul on divorce laws
A story published today by the Age reports that Federal Government frontbencher Ross Cameron yesterday called for an overhaul of Australia's divorce laws, proposing financial incentives for couples who stay together, as a response to Australia's growing fertility crisis.
Cameron said that the Family Law Act could be amended to offer tax incentives to couples who signed away their rights to no-fault divorce.
Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott said he was worried about the trebling of the divorce rate since the Whitlam Labor government passed the Family Law Act in 1975, but he stopped short of advocating legislative reform in the short term.
The comments from both conservative Liberals come as the Howard Government searches for a third-term agenda confronting the problems of Australia's ageing population and slowing birthrate, which stands at 1.7 per cent far below the 2.1 per cent needed to support a static population.
While Mr. Howard is unlikely to adopt a solution as radical as that outlined by Mr. Cameron, he is looking at a range of incentives for Australians to have more babies.
"The connection arises from the fact that women in particular - but not exclusively - say that they would like to be married before they have children," Mr. Cameron said.
"If we then either never marry, or marry much later, or stay married for a shorter period of time, then it will, I think, have an inevitable effect on the birth rate. It's also the case that the most significant pockets of poverty in Australia are those connected with single-parent families following separation and divorce."
Cameron describes the Family Law Act, which introduced no-fault divorce, as "one of the most divisive and hated pieces of legislation on the Commonwealth statute books", and said it could be amended to establish the two-tiered system.
Since his appointment to the portfolio, Mr Cameron has spoken passionately of the need to lift Australia's fertility rate, at one point urging his Coalition colleagues to go home and "do something for Australia".
