Towards Better Outcomes for Children

In consequence, Family Courts have therefore frequently disregarded such allegations and have even punished the parents making such allegations by claiming they were "unfriendly" toward shared care or "implacably hostile" to any contact of the other parent with the child.

On some occasions when this has happened, the protective parent has absconded interstate or even overseas, to protect their child from what they reasonably believe is an abusive parent, but have been severely punished for doing so by the Courts with draconian measures such as heavy fines, orders to pay full Court costs, and even imprisonment. In effect the protective parents have been punished for the inadequacies of the law and the Family Courts.

Too little attention has been given in the existing Family Law and by the Courts in establishing whether a parent has an existing "meaningful relationship" with a child and whether a parent has actively engaged in the child's emotional, physical, social, and educational development prior to the parental separation which are the core elements of good parenting, and merely the participation of an adult in the conception of a child has been accepted and upheld by Courts as qualifying an adult as a "parent".

By placing the safety and protection of children as of paramount importance in matters of the custody and contact of those children with parents, it is to be hoped that the proposed amendments to the Family Law Act will close this gap between the Federal Law and State duties to protect children from harm and exploitation. It is also to be hoped that children's rights to have their views taken seriously into account in decisions affecting their lives is given a high priority by the Courts and become accepted good practice by Courts.