Family Court of Western Australia (Orders of Registrars) Act 1997

Any act or thing done or omitted to be done before or after the commencement of this Act under or in relation to a right or liability conferred, imposed or affected by section 5 of this Act, or the equivalent provision of the corresponding Western Australian Act:

has the same effect, and gives rise to the same consequences, for the purposes of any written or other law; and

is to be regarded as always having had the same effect, and given rise to the same consequences, for the purposes of any written or other law;

as if it were done or omitted to be done to give effect to, or under the authority of, or in reliance on:

an order made by the Family Court of Western Australia, in the exercise of its federal family jurisdiction, in or in relation to the proceedings for the order; or

an order made by the Family Court of Western Australia in or in relation to the proceedings referred to in the equivalent provision of the corresponding Western Australian Act;

as the case requires.

Subject to subsection (3), for the purposes of an enforcement law (see subsection (4)), any act or thing done or omitted to be done before or after the commencement of this Act gives rise to the same consequences, and is to be regarded as always having given rise to the same consequences, as if each ineffective order were an order made by the Family Court of Western Australia, in the exercise of its federal family jurisdiction, in or in relation to the proceedings for the order.

If, before the commencement of this Act, a court purported to convict a person of an offence against an enforcement law on the basis that an order of the kind referred to in subsection 4(2) was a valid order, nothing in this section is to be taken to validate or confirm that conviction.

In this section:

enforcement law means a provision of a law of the Commonwealth, other than a law relating to contempt of court, that sets out a consequence for a person if the person:

contravenes; or

acts in a specified way while there is in force;

an order, or a particular kind of order, made by a court exercising federal family jurisdiction (whether or not the provision also applies to other orders of courts).