AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY
Family Provision (Amendment) Act 1996
No. 16 of 1996
An Act to amend the Family Provision Act 1969
[Notified in ACT Gazette S71: 1 May 1996]
The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory enacts as follows:
Short title
1. This Act may be cited as the Family Provision (Amendment) Act 1996.
Commencement
2. This Act commences on the day on which it is notified in the Gazette.
Principal Act
3. In this Act, “Principal Act” means the Family Provision Act 1969.1
Application
4. (1) Subject to subsection (3), the Principal Act as amended by this Act applies in relation to the estates of all deceased persons, including the estates of persons who died before the commencement date.
(2) Subject to subsection (3), where, immediately before the commencement date—
(a)an application for provision out of the estate of a deceased person under section 8 of the Principal Act had been made; and
(b)the application had not yet been determined by the Court;
the application is to be taken to have been made under the Principal Act as amended by this Act, and shall be determined by the Court accordingly.
(3) The Principal Act as in force immediately before the commencement date continues to apply in relation to an application under section 8 of the Principal Act for provision out of the estate of a deceased person (whether made before or after the commencement date) where, before the commencement date—
(a)probate or letters of administration had been granted in relation to the estate;
(b)the Public Trustee had given notice of intention to administer the estate under subsection 87B (3) of the Administration and Probate Act 1929;
(c)the Public Trustee had lodged for filing an election to administer the estate under subsection 87C (1) of the Administration and Probate Act 1929; or
(d)the Public Trustee had been granted an order to collect and administer the estate under subsection 88 (1) or 92 (1) of the Administration and Probate Act 1929.
(4) In this section—
“commencement date” means the date of commencement of this Act.
Interpretation
5. Section 4 of the Principal Act is amended by inserting in subsection (1) the following definitions:
“ ‘domestic partner’, in relation to a deceased person, means a person who lived with the deceased in a domestic relationship for 2 years continuously at any time during the life of the deceased;
‘domestic relationship’ means a personal relationship between 2 adults (other than a relationship between spouses) in which 1 provides personal or financial commitment and support of a domestic nature for the material benefit of the other;
‘eligible partner’, in relation to a deceased person, means a person other than the person’s legal spouse who—
(a)whether or not of the same gender as the deceased—lived with the deceased at any time as a member of a couple on a genuine domestic basis; and
(b)either—
(i)had lived with the deceased in that manner for 2 or more years continuously; or