New South Wales Consolidated Acts

PROPERTY (RELATIONSHIPS) ACT 1984 - SECT 5

5 Domestic relationships

(1) For the purposes of this Act, a domestic relationship is:

(a) a de facto relationship, or

(b) a close personal relationship (other than a marriage or a de facto relationship) between two adult persons, whether or not related by family, who are living together, one or each of whom provides the other with domestic support and personal care.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) (b), a close personal relationship is taken not to exist between two persons where one of them provides the other with domestic support and personal care:

(a) for fee or reward, or

(b) on behalf of another person or an organisation (including a government or government agency, a body corporate or a charitable or benevolent organisation).

(3) A reference in this Act to a child of the parties to a domestic relationship is a reference to any of the following:

(a) a child born as a result of sexual relations between the parties,

(b) a child adopted by both parties,

(c) where the domestic relationship is a de facto relationship between a man and a woman, a child of the woman:

(i) of whom the man is the father, or

(ii) of whom the man is presumed, by virtue of the Status of Children Act 1996 , to be the father, except where such a presumption is rebutted,

(c1) where the domestic relationship is a de facto relationship between two women, a child of whom both of those women are presumed to be parents by virtue of the Status of Children Act 1996 ,

(d) a child for whose long-term welfare both parties have parental responsibility (within the meaning of the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 ).

(4) Except as provided by section 6, a reference in this Act to a party to a domestic relationship includes a reference to a person who, whether before or after the commencement of this subsection, was a party to such a relationship.