{"id":7228,"date":"2022-09-06T11:06:41","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T11:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/?p=7228"},"modified":"2023-06-06T16:26:25","modified_gmt":"2023-06-06T16:26:25","slug":"children-and-family-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/?p=7228","title":{"rendered":"Children and family law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Under Australian family law, children have a right to enjoy a meaningful relationship<\/a> with both their parents, and to be protected from harm. A court is required to give greater weight to the consideration of the need to protect children from harm.
The Family Law Act 1975<\/em> is gender-neutral, and does not make assumptions about parenting roles.
When a family court is making a decision about a child, the court will make an order that is in the best interests of the child.

Parental responsibility<\/strong>
Parental responsibility means all of the duties, powers, responsibilities and authority that parents have in relation to their children.

Each parent ordinarily has parental responsibility for the child regardless of whether they are married, in a de facto relationship, never in a relationship or otherwise. This means that both parents can independently make decisions about the child.

When the parents of a child under the age of 18 separate, they both continue to share parental responsibility for the child in this way.

If the parents would like to create a legal obligation to jointly make major long-term decisions relating to the child’s welfare and upbringing, they should make or request a court order for Equal Shared Parental Responsibility<\/a>‘. ‘Major long-term issues’ includes things like where a child will go to school, major health decisions, and religious observance.

Equal shared parental responsibility is not the same as equal time.<\/strong>
A court may decide it is in the best interests of the child<\/a> to remove parental responsibility from one or both parents. A court can also decide to assign parental responsibility to a legal guardian.

Parenting time<\/strong>
There are no hard and fast rules about making arrangements for which parent a child will live with or spend time with after their parents separate.
This used to be called making \u2018custody\u2019 or \u2018contact\u2019 arrangements. These terms are no longer used in Australian family law.

There is no rule that children must spend equal or “50:50” time with each parent.<\/strong>
In most cases, it\u2019s best that both parents discuss their child\u2019s individual needs, and come to their own agreement about where a child will live, and how they will spend time with their parents.

There are all sorts of different ways that separated families can make sure that their children have ongoing relationships with both of their parents. If you and your former partner agree on the future arrangements for children, you do not have to go to court. You can make a parenting agreement or obtain \u2018consent orders\u2019 for parenting orders approved by a court.

The Parenting Orders – what you need to know Handbook<\/a> provides advice to parents about how to develop and obtain parenting orders.

For more information see Parenting Agreements<\/a> and \u201cHow do I apply for Parenting Orders?\u201d<\/a>
You may also wish to seek legal advice<\/a>.

Best interests of the child<\/strong>
When making decisions about children, what matters the most is that parents focus on what would be in the best interests of their child.

Most separated or divorced parents successfully agree on their own arrangements for the care of their children after joint discussions.

If parents can\u2019t agree on arrangements for children after separation, specialist family mediation services<\/a> can help parents come to a mutually agreeable decision or compromise.

If parents still can\u2019t agree, a judge in a family law court will make a decision. The judge\u2019s decision will be based on the best interests of the child in accordance with the Family Law Act<\/em><\/a>.

Financial responsibility for children<\/strong>
Both parents also have a duty to support the child financially after separation, regardless of who the child lives with. Parents can manage this between themselves or apply for a child support assessment.
The Department of Human Services administers the child support program, assisting parents to provide support for their children.

Information about the child support program<\/a> is available at the Department of Human Services\u2019 website.

Your child\u2019s wellbeing<\/strong>
It can be hard for children when their parents separate. It is important that you focus on what is best for your children right now, and into the future.

Don\u2019t criticise your children\u2019s other parent or pressure your children to make decisions about their own care. Children love their parents and it can be harmful to put them in a situation where they feel that they have to choose between their parents.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7228","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-family-law"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7228","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7228"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7228\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7526,"href":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7228\/revisions\/7526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xenodochial-liskov.139-99-238-150.plesk.page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}