Laws give mistresses "spousal maintenance"

'Spousal maintenance' for mistresses | National News | News.com.au

* Laws give mistresses new rights
* May be entitled to "spousal maintenance"
* Even after the affair ends

PHILANDERING husbands could soon be forced by the courts to keep paying for their mistresses after an affair ends.

That is just one outcome set to arise from laws on broken de facto relationships that will take effect early next year, The Courier-Mail reports.

Under the Family Law Act reforms, de facto partners together for two years will get the same rights as married couples to seek "spousal maintenance" claims.

Maintenance, as distinct from child support, may be ordered when the other party is "unable to support herself or himself adequately" following separation.

But legal experts warn the amended Act - passed in the Senate on Monday - opens the definition of a de facto couple to wide interpretation.

It prescribes a de facto relationship as an opposite-sex or same-sex couple "living together on a genuine domestic basis".

Yet it also stipulates that a de facto alliance can exist even if one of the partners is legally married to somebody else or in another de facto relationship.