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» The Family Law Ammendment - (Shared Responsibility) Bill 2005
The Family Law Ammendment - (Shared Responsibility) Bill 2005
The Bill, according to the Attorney-General Phillip Ruddock,
“reflected the Government’s determination to ensure the right of children to grow up with the love and support of both of their parents….We want to help parents sit down with each other and talk about what is best for their children, rather than immediately entering into the adversarial legal system.”The most significant of the Government initiatives which are reflected in the Bill can be summarized as follows:
- A presumption, or starting-point, of equal shared parental responsibility, will be introduced into the Family Law Act. The intention is that both parents will have “an equal role” in making decisions about major long-term issues involving the children, for example choice of school
- The Courts will be required to consider whether children spending equal time with both parents is reasonably practicable and in the best interests of the child.
- If the Court does not consider it appropriate that the children spend equal time with both parents, it must then consider whether the children should spend “substantial and significant time” with both parents, which is defined to include involvement in the children’s daily routine and special occasions, such as family weddings and parents’ birthdays.
- While the best interests of the child continue to be the paramount consideration the Court will be required to give regard to a new set of considerations in making that determination, including the willingness of the child’s parents to encourage a “close and continuing relationship” between the child and the other parent.
- The Court will be given wider powers to deal with people who breach Contact Orders.
- Child-related proceedings in Court will be less adversarial, with the continued roll-out of the existing “Children’s Cases Program”.
- The Government has committed $400 million to the establishment of 65 “Family Relationship Centres” over the next 4 years, with a commitment that 15 of those centres will be open by 1 July, 2006.
- The Bill introduces new terminology. The Court will be no longer make an Order for “residence”, rather, it will make Orders about “the person or persons with whom a child is to live.” The Court will also no longer make “contact orders” – these will be known as orders dealing with “the time a child is to spend with another person or persons.
- Except in certain circumstances (eg involving family violence or abuse), parents will be required to engage in “family dispute resolution”, before applying to a Court.
Until now, shared parenting Orders were not the norm in the Family Court. Unless the shared parenting arrangements were being sought with the consent of both parties, the Court usually had to be satisfied that the arrangement was appropriate. In determining this, the Court would, in the very least, consider whether the parents had a good relationship and lived in close proximity to each other.
The Bill is clearly promoting the increased implementation of shared parenting arrangements between separated parents. It may be that the amendments proposed by the Bill will not have any significant effect on the attitude of the Courts and therefore on the types of Orders that the Court will make. What cannot be doubted is that the Bill will, at least initially, see a surge in the number of applicants seeking to achieve more than the usual “alternate weekend contact” regime. However, as a result of changes recently agreed in the Senate, the changes in the Bill per se cannot be used to re-open previously resolved parenting issues.
The Bill passed through the Senate on 30 March 2006 and will be finally considered by the House of Representatives on 9 May.
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