Hello,
Damien Carrick here.
Did you know this year marks the 50th anniversary of the Family Law Act coming into force?
Before the act arrived in 1976, and completely transformed the way Australians divorce, couples often had to jump through extraordinary hoops just to end a marriage.
Back then, divorce wasn't possible unless you could prove your partner was at fault. There were only a handful of grounds you could rely on, like cruelty or constructive desertion.
And adultery? That was the most commonly used ground. Not because it was pleasant to prove (it was usually expensive, messy and deeply humiliating), but because it was often the easiest to capture.
In this week's Law Report, I learned just how far people would go. Lawyers routinely hired private investigators to catch out a straying spouse. One photographer even followed someone onto a golf course, and in the scramble to get the perfect shot, they fell out of a tree.
Sometimes couples went even further — colluding with photographers to stage evidence just so they could end their marriage.
Fifty years on, the system looks very different. So what does Australian family law do well today and where is there still room for improvement?
P.S Also check out former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark discussing the hurdles women face when vying for the top job. And Global Roaming asks whether or not Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest could save the royal family from themselves.
