Crownmark Lawyers | Property & Conveyancing Most people think the legal work on a property ends at settlement. Contracts are exchanged, the loan is drawn down, the keys change hands, and the file is closed. What that view misses is that owning property in Victoria carries its own ongoing obligations, ones that exist independently of how or why the property was bought, and that keep applying for as long as you hold it. In 2026, several of those obligations have widened in scop

Crownmark Lawyers | Family Law Reforms Victoria The most significant changes to family law property settlements in roughly half a century took effect on 10 June 2025. A year is long enough for the early uncertainty to settle and for the courts to show, through their decisions, how the new rules actually work in practice. For anyone living in Victoria now, the picture is clearer than it was, and in several respects it is materially different from the law that applied to frien

Crownmark Lawyers | Immigration Law Division If your Australian visa has been refused or cancelled, the next step is often time-sensitive. From 1 July 2026, application fees for the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) have increased, meaning applicants should now expect higher costs when applying for a review of certain immigration decisions. An ART review is not the same as lodging a new visa application. It is a process where the Tribunal reviews a decision made by the Dep

Crownmark Lawyers | Immigration Law Division Australian visa application charges increased from 1 July 2026. For many applicants, this means lodging a visa application now costs more than it did before the new financial year. Before submitting an application or making payment, applicants should check the current government fee and understand the total cost involved. Updated Visa Application Charges from 1 July 2026 Visa category Subclass Fee before 1 July 2026 Fee from 1 July

Crownmark Lawyers | National Disability Insurance Scheme If you’re a participant, carer or provider operating within the National Disability Insurance Scheme right now, the landscape has shifted and it keeps shifting frequently in ways that are not apparent until the impact has already landed. This article sets out what has actually shifted, what it means for your situation, and when the choice of who advises you starts to matter. The first is the scale of the reform. The ND

Crownmark Lawyers | Wills & Estate Planning Most people treat a Will as a task that is done once and then filed away. You sign it, you put it somewhere safe, and you assume the question is settled. The difficulty is that a Will is not a static document. It interacts with the law as it stands when you die, with the assets you actually hold at that point, and with the family circumstances of the moment, none of which look the way they did when you signed. In 2026, several of th

Crownmark Lawyers | Immigration Law Division Choosing between a migration agent and a lawyer often comes down to how complicated your situation is – and recent changes to the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) process for temporary visa reviews have made that choice matter more. Should you Choose a Migration Agent or Lawyer? For straightforward visa applications in well-understood categories, a registered migration agent may be a good choice. They understand form requiremen

Crownmark Lawyers | Immigration Law Division From 1 July 2026, the salary thresholds for employer-sponsored visas will increase. If your employer is planning on sponsoring, these numbers need to be part of your planning now. Here is what is changing, and how it fits into the broader sponsorship pathways. The New Salary Thresholds From 1 July 2026, the new salary thresholds will be as follows: Core Skills Income Threshold (CSIT) – changes from $76,515 to $79,499 and applies to

Crownmark Lawyers | Immigration & Visa Law Division The 2026-27 federal budget has set new numbers for Australia’s permanent migration program. Where you are in the system, onshore or offshore, now matters more than it has in years. Here is what the budget allocation actually means depending on your situation. The New Migration Program Numbers The 2026-27 federal budget set the permanent migration program at 185,000 places. Of those, 129,590 were allocated to onshore applican