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Article: De facto couples in legal limbo
- Article from:
- The Press
- Article date:
- March 2, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2005 The Press. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Legal uncertainty continues for de facto couples after a
parliamentary committee backed down on blanket plans to give them the
same legal status as couples who marry or enter a civil union.
In practice, the backdown is likely to have little effect because
of the large number of laws that already treat long-term de facto
relationships the same as marriage.
Further law changes are planned under the Relationships (Statutory
References) Bill giving legal recognition to defacto couples.
But the committee that dealt with the bill says the law should
also recognise that de facto relationships are different --
especially now that civil union is available as an option to those
who object to ...