Insights

The cases that decide real family matters

Family law in Australia turns on a handful of judgments and two recent waves of reform. These are notes on what they say and what they mean if you are the one living through it.

Immigration6 min read

International student visa updates for 2026: what students need to know

Visa requirements for international students are shifting again in 2026, with major destinations updating financial evidence, work rights and post-study pathways. Understanding those changes early helps with choosing a destination, preparing documents and planning the full cost of studying abroad.

21 September 2026Read

Immigration6 min read

Australian visa application updates 2026: what applicants need to know

Australia's visa settings are shifting again in 2026, with tighter compliance, changes to student and visitor visas, and a new processing-priority system for offshore student applications. If you are preparing to apply, the useful starting point is what changed and what still depends on your individual circumstances.

21 September 2026Read

Property6 min read

Proving that violence made your contribution harder

A Kennon claim is the argument that abuse in a relationship made everything you contributed to it cost you more. It has been available since 1997, it is difficult to run, and in 2019 the Full Court removed one of the reasons people were told not to bother.

8 September 2026Read

Parenting5 min read

Final parenting orders are not always final, but the bar is real

You cannot go back to court every time an arrangement stops suiting you. The threshold that stops that has been part of Australian family law since 1979, it was written into the Act in 2024, and the Full Court has now told us exactly how it works.

1 September 2026Read

Property6 min read

Family violence now sits inside the property split

From 10 June 2025 the Family Law Act says out loud what courts had been working around for years: violence in a relationship, including financial control, can change what a fair division of the assets looks like. Pets got their own rules on the same day.

25 August 2026Read

Parenting6 min read

The equal-time presumption is gone. Here is what replaced it.

Since 6 May 2024 there is no starting assumption that separated parents share decision-making equally, and no automatic step where a court works through equal time. If someone told you the law gives you fifty-fifty, they were describing a law that no longer exists.

18 August 2026Read

Property5 min read

Separation does not automatically entitle you to a share

Before a court divides anything, it has to be satisfied that dividing it is just and equitable. That sounds like a formality. In 2012 the High Court made clear it is not, and the case that settled it involved a couple who never chose to separate at all.

11 August 2026Read

Agreements5 min read

A prenup signed under pressure is not much of a prenup

Binding financial agreements work. They also get set aside, and the leading case involved an agreement signed four days before a wedding, against a specialist solicitor's advice that it was entirely inappropriate and should not be signed.

4 August 2026Read

Parenting5 min read

What your child wants matters. It does not decide the case.

A teenager's wishes carry real weight in a parenting case. They carry less when a parent has arranged the circumstances that produced them, which is how a family holiday to New York ended up in the High Court.

28 July 2026Read

Parenting5 min read

Who counts as a parent

A man who provided sperm to a friend, was named on the birth certificate, and raised the child as Daddy was described in court as a sperm donor. The High Court disagreed, and the reasoning matters to anyone building a family outside the standard template.

21 July 2026Read

Superannuation6 min read

Most of what you will read about splitting super is out of date

The twelve-month separation rule was repealed in December 2024. You have been able to get the other side's superannuation straight from the Tax Office since 2022. And the valuation rules were replaced in April 2025. Very little of the advice sitting online has caught up.

14 July 2026Read

De facto5 min read

Seventeen years, money every month, and still not a de facto relationship

Whether you were in a de facto relationship is not decided by how long it lasted or how much support changed hands. It is decided by whether two lives merged into one. A case about a seventeen-year affair explains the line better than the section does.

7 July 2026Read