Same sex relationships to be recognised by Centrelink
From 1 July 2009 people in same sex relationships will be recognised as couples for the purpose of Centrelink benefits, allowances and calculations. This is a result of the wide ranging legislative changes made by the Federal Government aimed to create equality between same sex and heterosexual couples.
The changes will affect the benefits payable to people in same sex couples, as they will now be assessed on their joint income and assets.
The changes will affect benefits including:-
- Age Pensions;
- Newstart allowance;
- Childcare benefits;
- Youth allowance.
The changes also affect the calculation of accommodation bonds and charges for people entering nursing homes and care facilities. When completing the asset test to calculate the amount of an accommodation bond, the parties’ home will not be included in the calculation where a same sex partner remains living in the property when the other party enters the care facility. This has been a benefit enjoyed by heterosexual couples for a number of years.
Removal of same sex discrimation federally
The Federal Attorney General has announced that legislation to remove same-sex discrimination from a wide range of Commonwealth laws will be introduced in the Winter Sittings of Parliament. This reform follows the report of HREOC, Same-Sex: Same Entitlements, which focused on financial and work-related legislation.
Areas where discrimination will be removed include:
- Tax
- Superannuation
- Social security
- Health
- Aged care
- Veterans’ entitlements
- Workers’ compensation
- Employment entitlements
- Other areas of Commonwealth administration
The Government has begun introducing legislation in the Winter Sittings of Parliament. In areas such as social security, tax and veterans’ affairs, the reforms are expected to be phased in – to allow time for couples to adjust their finances, and for administrative arrangements to be implemented.
All of the changes are expected to be implemented by mid-2009.
If you have any queries relating to Family or Relationships law please do not hesitate to contact any of our Family and Relationships Law Team at Mullane and Lindsay: Mark Sullivan, Vivien Carty, Kristy Davis and Ashleigh John. Kristy Davis is present at our Tea Gardens office on Wednesday afternoons by appointment. (Tel: 4928 7300).
Fixtures from sale of a property
Source: Law Society of New South Wales
What can I take from home?
All ‘fixtures’ are included in the sale of a property without having to be mentioned specifically.
A fixture is something attached to the land or building that cannot be either simply lifted up and taken away, or unscrewed and taken away without doing any damage. For example, most electric stoves are wired in, so they are fixtures, but most refrigerators are plugged in, so they are not fixtures.
For both buyer and seller, the safest course is to ask your solicitor to specifically include or exclude in the contract any items about which there can be room for doubt.
PROFESSIONAL RISK Failure to warn
Professionals must be careful to fully inform clients to avoid accusations of negligence. A recent case considered a failure to warn a medical patient.
It was argued that a doctor was negligent by not adequately warning a woman that a sterilisation procedure might fail, exposing her to the risk of becoming pregnant again.
The doctor had described his personal failure rate using the procedure as one in 2,000, rather than referring to a professional publication which wrote of a risk of one in 500 women who had the operation becoming pregnant.
REDUNDANCY Tax concessions on payments
On being shown the door, an unwanted employee is likely to be paid accrued salary, entitlements to unused holiday pay and long-service leave, and possibly a redundancy payment.
Accrued salary is assessed in the normal way and accrued annual leave paid in respect of service on or after 18 August 1993 is fully assessable.
A redundancy payment has to be for a genuine reduction in a company’s staffing for part of it to be tax-free. This tax-free amount is indexed annually, and the amount for the year ended 30 June 2009 is $7,350 plus $3,676 for each whole year in the period, or the sum of periods, of employment to which the payment relates.
COMPULSORILY ACQUIRED LAND Claiming loss of profits
Claims for compensation are often made not only by landowners but also by businesses which operate on acquired land.
Many state authorities have the power to compulsorily acquire land for public purposes. The law ensures that compensation is paid for the market value of the acquired land and for ‘disturbance’ to the dispossessed owner.
An ‘owner’, for the purposes of the law, means any person who has an “interest in the land“, which would include, in most cases, any business operating from the land with a lease or similar arrangement. Some public works may also have a short-term impact on a business’s profits.