| Abstract: | The community tends to assume that, because a body of law known as ‘family law’ exists, it is based on cohesive and consistent principles which apply uniformly and without discrimination to all children and their families throughout Australia. It is further assumed that the law enables children to know who their family is, and to have ongoing relationships with all members of their family who love and care about them — even when another family may be taking care of them in the day to day sense. These assumptions do not reflect the real situation. The law in many instances prevents rather than enables the development of positive relationships between children and their families. The challenge for the community is to create a uniform and unified family law jurisdiction which supports and strengthens children's relationship with their families and which enables children to answer the question ‘Who is my family? Who cares for me?’ |
