Speaking at a fringe meeting hosted by charity consortium Kids in the Middle, Tim Loughton said his party preferred a system which presumed shared parenting following family break down.
He also suggested that couples who cannot agree on joint arrangements should be made to go through a mediation process.
He said: "At the moment we have got an incredibly adversarial system when parents split up. It is crazy we have so many acrimonious cases.
"From the start of the process there should be a default mechanism for shared responsibility unless there is a welfare reason not to."
His comments answered concerns set out by the 26 charities that make up Kids in the Middle, over the adverse impact of conflict between parents on children.
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