Page 3343 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 12 October 1993
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It is not through want of advertising. The Minister has put it out, and there has been some discussion in the media and so on, but I still believe that many people are unaware of the implications of this. I think we need to make sure that they are aware of those implications before we, as an Assembly, seek to adopt legislation of this kind.
However, the question of regularising the rights of people in such relationships, of all the sorts that I have spoken about, is a vitally important one. We can no longer allow people in those relationships to be treated as second-class citizens merely because we have not, in the past, felt sufficiently capable of grappling with the question of how to deal with their position. As the Attorney pointed out in his speech, there are not many people who are in a de facto relationship, so called, but there are many, I think, who would expect to be able to turn to the law and who at the present time simply cannot do that. I commend this discussion paper as a good first step in looking towards ensuring that those rights are regularised in the future.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (8.30): Mr Deputy Speaker, the financial needs of those living in de facto relationships are often identical to those of married persons. However, these needs are not adequately met at present by ACT law. There are also many who live in domestic relationships, such as adult siblings, or those caring for parents, relatives or the children of either of those, where one party contributes to the financial benefit of another in non-financial ways.
Research in Queensland indicates the need for a broad approach to domestic relationships. In responses by 155 lawyers to a survey carried out by the Queensland Law Reform Commission, and reported in its discussion paper which was called "Shared Property", 98 per cent said that they had been approached for advice about a de facto relationship. However, 80 per cent said that they had given advice to someone who was living with a person who was not their legal or de facto spouse. Fifteen per cent said that they had done so frequently. The survey also indicated that in this non-de facto and non-marital context most of the advice had been given to relatives - that was 46 per cent - and friends - 32 per cent - who were living together. Ten per cent of practitioners commented that they had advised people living in homosexual relationships. From our inquiries in the ACT there is no reason to believe that these figures would not describe the situation in the ACT as well. The law already provides some relief for those living in domestic relationships. However, because it is complex and expensive to seek relief, few people have access to the current law.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the Government is committed to the principle that no-one should benefit unfairly from the financial or non-financial sacrifice of another person who has contributed to their overall financial advantage while trusting them for some consideration for that effort. The proposed legislation is aimed at preventing such financial exploitation. By embracing the many different categories of domestic relationships, the proposed legislation is a trailblazing development of the law for the promotion of social justice. From a social justice perspective, it is most equitable to define personal domestic relationships on the basis of financial arrangements rather than sexual relationships. The proposal is thus concerned with a financial relationship, not a sexual one. It involves looking back over events of the past; it is not involved with future domestic arrangements, unless a specific contract arranging financial affairs is entered into.
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