Marriage and marriage breakdown are the reasons we have the much discussed Family Law Act, Family Courts and the current boom in divorces. Divorce and the legal machinery which deals with it is more easily discussed in the media than is marriage and the processes by which it breaks down. This helps people to ignore marital problems until they become so painful and difficult that divorce seems the only solution. It is easier to read and write about sex, divorce and violence than about marriage, love and emotional closeness. Unless this is changed the rate of marriage breakdown and divorce in Australia is likely to remain higher than society can afford.