Our firm recently represented a mother who was successfully granted sole parental responsibility in a complex parenting case. The decision in these proceedings is an early demonstration of how the new legislation is applied in parenting cases, especially those involving serious allegations of family violence.
- she have sole parental responsibility (i.e. sole decision making as to major long-term issues for the child);
- the child live with her; and
- the father spend no time with the child, having regard to his family violence and general anti-social behaviour.
Best interests of the child
When deciding what parenting orders to make, the Court must have regard to the best interests of the child as the paramount consideration. Under recent changes to the Family Law Act 1975 (the Act) introduced in May 2024, the Court must consider the following factors:
- Arrangements which promote the child’s safety (including protection from family violence);
- Any expressed views of the child;
- The child’s development, psychological, emotional and cultural needs;
- Each parent’s capacity to provide for those needs;
- The benefit of the child having a relationship with each parent; and
- Anything else that is relevant to the particular circumstances of the child.
Family violence
Family violence is defined broadly. It includes behaviour that is physically or sexually abusive, emotionally or psychologically or economically abusive, threatening, coercive, or behaviour that controls or dominates a family member, causing them to fear for their safety or wellbeing.
In these proceedings, family violence was considered a significant factor as the Court found that, throughout the relationship, the father had perpetrated several forms of violence against the mother, including:
- physical violence;
- verbal abuse and derogatory language;
- threatening conduct;
- abusive and manipulative behaviour; and
- coercive control.
Parental responsibility and time arrangements
Prior to recent changes to the Act, there was a presumption in relation to equal shared parental responsibility and the need to consider equal time or substantial and significant time arrangements for a child.
Arising from these changes, those presumptions have been removed so that the Court can now focus entirely on what arrangements best meet the needs of the child.
In these proceedings, the Court ordered that the mother have sole parental responsibility and sole responsibility for decision-making as to major long-term issues for the child. It assessed that the child’s time with the father would not promote their best emotional and psychological wellbeing and therefore ordered that no time occur.
Although the Court does not make orders for sole parenting lightly, the Judge considered how the mother’s exposure to the father would impact her mental health and consequently her role as primary caregiver of the child.
If you have any questions about your own parenting matter, we can help.
