Commonwealth Consolidated Acts Commonwealth Consolidated Acts(1) The Governor - General may make regulations, not inconsistent with this Act, prescribing all matters that are required or permitted by this Act to be prescribed or are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to this Act and, in particular:
(a) providing for and in relation to the service overseas, pursuant to any convention between Australia and another country, of any documents in proceedings under this Act; and
(b) providing for and in relation to the transcription of proceedings under this Act and the making available of copies of transcripts of those proceedings; and
(baa) modifying or adapting the provisions of the Legislation Act 2003 (other than the provisions of Part 2 of Chapter 3 of that Act or any other provisions whose modification or adaptation would affect the operation of that Part) in their application to a court exercising jurisdiction under this Act; and
(bb) prescribing requirements for arbitrators; and
(bba) the registration of awards made in section 13E arbitration and relevant property or financial arbitration; and
(bc) prescribing, or providing for or in relation to, anything that may be dealt with in Rules of Court made under paragraph 123(1)(sa), (sb), (sc), (sca), (sd), (sda), (sdb), (sdc), (se), (sea) or (seb); and
(c) prescribing court fees to be payable in respect of proceedings under this Act; and
(d) exempting persons included in particular classes of persons from liability to pay court fees prescribed under paragraph (c); and
(e) providing for the refund of court fees prescribed under paragraph (c) that have been paid in particular circumstances; and
(f) providing for an officer of a court exercising jurisdiction under this Act, a prescribed authority of the Commonwealth, of a State or of a Territory or the person for the time being holding a prescribed office under a law of the Commonwealth, of a State or of a Territory, in his, her or its discretion, to institute and prosecute proceedings, on behalf of the person entitled to moneys payable under a child maintenance order under Part VII or a maintenance order under Part VIII, for the purpose of enforcing payment of those moneys; and
(g) providing for and in relation to priority as between the execution of orders made under the regulations, or under the repealed Act, for the attachment of moneys payable by the Commonwealth, a State, a Territory or the Administration of a Territory, or by an authority of the Commonwealth, of a State or of a Territory (other than moneys as to which it is provided by any law of the Commonwealth, of a State or of a Territory that they are not liable to attachment) and the execution of orders made in accordance with the Maintenance Orders (Commonwealth Officers) Act 1966 .
(2) Court fees payable in pursuance of regulations made under this section in respect of proceedings in a Family Court of a State are payable to the State.
(3) To the extent of any inconsistency between regulations and Rules of Court, the regulations prevail.
This Part sets out the court's powers to deal with proceedings that are unmeritorious, harmful, or vexatious.
Unmeritorious proceedings are proceedings that are without reasonable prospect of success, frivolous, vexatious, or an abuse of process.
Harmful proceedings are proceedings that may result in harm to another party, or to a child involved in the proceedings. The kinds of harms that might provide grounds for such an order could include severe stress (that could arise, for example, from repeated filings of applications against the respondent).
Vexatious proceedings include proceedings that are an abuse of process, proceedings instituted without reasonable grounds, and proceedings instituted or conducted for a wrongful purpose.
It is an offence to communicate an account of proceedings under this Act to the public, if the account identifies certain people involved in the proceedings.
It is an offence to communicate a list of proceedings that are to be dealt with under this Act to the public, and that are identified by reference to the names of the parties to those proceedings.
A communication is not made to the public if the communication is made to a
person with a significant and legitimate interest in the subject matter of the
communication that is greater than the interest of members of the public
generally.