The De-Facto Relationships Act 1984 (NSW) was amended and renamed The Property (Relationships) Act 1984 (NSW). The newly amended act dud recognise same sex relations as de-facto relationships through the amendment in Section 4. The change is section 4, removed the previously discriminative definition to "A relationship between two adult person who live together as a couple." This now more open piece of legislation provided a range of new protections for same sec couples in Property Divisions, Inheritance, Decision making powers in terminal illness and arrangement responsibilities after a partner's death.
Under traditional legislation homo-sexual partners wouldn't receive a share of their deceased partner's property/estate if their partner died interstate (without a will). This failure of the Australian Legal System lead to the creation of the Family Provisions Act 1982 and the major piece of revolutionary legislation, The Property (Relationships) Amendment Act (NSW) that ensures that same sex couples are awarded the same right to appeal wills as heterosexual couples and the inclusion in a will automatically if a partner dies interstate. The change is also shown the common law case of the Estate of Diane Watson (also known as the Jan Bell Case), which in 1996 Jan Bell partner of Diane Watson successfully appealed the terms of property division of her lesbian partners estate, who passed away interstate. This case shows that not only was the common law system efficient and effective in resolving the matter ethically, but that our law reform system successfully integrates society's changing values into legislation.
Medical Rights .
Common Law has also aided the Medical Rights of families with same sex partners. This is most famously demonstrated in the case of hope and brown v NIB Health Fund Limited 1994, where the Health Fund NIB refused to provide family health insurance to a gay couple based on the premises that they weren't a 'traditional family'.