In today’s Family Law Fundamentals we’re going to take a look at parenting orders as defined in Part VII, Division 5 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (“the Act”). Part VII of the Act deals with children’s matters in general, and s.64B (in Division 5 of Part VII), defines what a parenting order is. A parenting order may deal with one or more of the following:
If you’ve read our article on Equal Shared Parental Responsibility, you’ll know that it is presumed to be in the best interests of the child that both parents share responsibility for making decisions about major long-term issues concerning the child. Determining what is in the best interests of the child is relevant to both rebutting this presumption of equal shared parental responsibility, and to making decisions about where the child lives, who the child spends time with, and other matters that the Court is called upon to consider when making Parenting Orders (including Consent Orders) under Part VII, Division 5 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (“the Act”). s.60CC of the Act sets out a long list of matters that the court must consider in order to determine what is in the child’s best interests. This list is broken down into Primary Considerations and Additional Considerations. Primary considerations are given ...