Western Australia is the only state in Australia that follows separate legislation for defacto couples.
The Family Law Amendment Act came into effect in 2009, whereby all the states and territories referred their powers to deal with property and maintenance issues for de facto couples to the Commonwealth. Unlike every other state and territory, Western Australia decided that it was perfectly capable of looking after such matters under it’s own Family Court Act 1997.
Even though the Western Australian legislation relating to financial agreements reflects almost word for word the provisions set down for the other states in the Family Law Act, WA legislators have seen fit to stick with what they know.
How does this effect you?
Virtually all the rules are exactly the same – you can still make an agreement either:
Which stage are you at?