We told you so ... Women's legal groups and the Family Law Reform Act 1995

Recent empirical research conducted on the impact of the Family Law Reform Act 1995 (Cth) suggests that the violence reforms introduced by this legislation appear to be having little practical effect and that the safety of vulnerable parents and children is being compromised. In light of these outcomes, this paper revisits the critique of the reforms made by women's legal groups to consider the extent to which they foreshadowed the negative impact of the Family Law Reform Act on those vulnerable to violence. This paper argues that the prescience of women's legal groups in foreshadowing the impact of the reform has important implications for the reform of family law. It affirms that unless we consider the consequences of family law reform, particularly for those who are vulnerable, we will be destined to demonstrate Martha Minow's assessment of the impact of changes to Californian divorce law: that we ‘learn too late’.