When you are addressing a family question, you must think about all aspects of family law (children, same-sex couples, marriage/disolution of marriage)
Few tips to remember about family law:
- The best interests of a child is paramount. < -- priorty. This is done through: presumption of shared parenting, parenting plans etc.
- There is no legislation that allows same-sex couples to marry. They are unable to get married overseas and have their marriage recognised in Australia. John Howard recently has included the legal definition of marriage into marriage legislation so that same-sex couples aren't able to be acknowledged as married. Same-sex couples aren't able to adopt overseas or in Australia.
- Same-sex couples may be recognised as de-facto couples when living with eachother for more than two years.
- Same-sex couples may now apply for a dependant rebate (not sure the exact name) This means if your in a relationship and your partner dies and your usually dependant on their income, you can receieve money - not entirely sure on this though.
When answering an "evaluate the effectiveness" type question your weighing up the good and bad then making a judement. So .. blah blah is effective for individuals because, it may not been seen effective to those who are blah blah because blah .. the legal system may be more effective if ..
Thats just some basic information. If you practice writting essays regularly you will get the hang of things
Hope that sort of helped