Maintenance Act 1928, Victoria

The Maintenance Act 1928 (No. 3722) came into being at a time when many Victorian statutes were consolidated. Jaggs writes that the original 1919 Act (which had been amended in 1924) was not substantially altered in 1928. Two years after the passage of the Maintenance Act 1928, the number of Victorian children maintained with their mothers peaked at nearly 10,000 and remained close to that number during much of the depression of the 1930s. The legislation was not substantially amended until 1954, with the passage of the Children’s Welfare Act (Part V of which related to maintenance of children).

The long title is “An Act to consolidate the Law relating to the Maintenance of Destitute and Deserted Wives and Children and others and relating to Confinement Expenses and relating to the Relief of Persons whose relatives liable to support them reside in another state of the Commonwealth or in the Dominion of New Zealand, and to facilitate the Enforcement in Victoria of Maintenance Orders made in England and Northern Ireland and other parts of His majesty’s Dominions and Protectorates and vice versa, and for other purposes”.

It repeals the ‘Inter-State Destitute Persons Relief Act 1915 No. 2673; ‘Children’s Maintenance Act 1919’ No. 3002; ‘Marriage Maintenance Act 1919’ No. No.3010; ‘Inter-State Destitute Persons Relief Act 1921’ No. 3140; ‘Children’s Maintenance Act 1924’, No. 3376; ‘Maintenance Orders ( Facilities for Enforcement) Act 1925’ No.3397.
Act No. 6116.

The Maintenance Act 1928 (Act no. 3722) commenced on 18 December 1929 and was repealed by Maintenance (Consolidation) Act 1957 (Act No.6116 ) on 1 March 1958.