Hart and Hart

This matter concerned an application before Judge Phipps in the Family Court of Australia. The dispute involved the husband's obligation to ensure payment of the Superannuation Guarantee Charge in respect of superannuation not paid to the wife, and the subsequent steps required for the division of these superannuation entitlements.

The court was required to determine the mechanism by which the husband would rectify the shortfall in the wife's superannuation and how this rectified amount would then be subject to a splitting order under section 90MT of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth). This involved ensuring procedural fairness to the wife's superannuation fund and the formalisation of the proposed splitting order.

Judge Phipps ordered that the husband take all necessary steps to cause a specified business to pay the Superannuation Guarantee Charge to the Australian Taxation Office for superannuation owed to the wife. Upon the Australian Taxation Office making the payment to the wife's superannuation fund, the wife was to provide specific details to the husband's solicitors and the court. The husband was then to prepare a minute of proposed order for a superannuation splitting order under s 90MT of the *Family Law Act 1975*, allocating a base amount of the payment to himself, and to provide evidence of procedural fairness to the wife's superannuation fund before submitting the proposed order to the court. Liberty to apply was granted to each party on reasonable notice, and the application was otherwise adjourned.