Following separation, you need to reach agreement with your spouse or, failing agreement, have a court determine parenting arrangements which are in your child or children's best interests.
In reaching a parenting arrangement, consistent with the best interests of children being the paramount consideration, the law relating to children has regard to considerations like:
- the need to protect children from harm;
- the child or children's right to know, be cared for and have a meaningful relationship with both their parents and to spend time on a regular basis with both parents and others significant to their care, welfare and development, including grandparents;
- any views expressed by the child or children;
- each parent's ability to demonstrate his or her responsibilities of parenthood and their capacity to provide for the needs of the child or children, including their emotional and intellectual needs, and
- any practical difficulties of a child or children spending time with a parent.
If agreement can be reached with your spouse it can be recorded by either a parenting plan or consent order.
The terms "custody" or "full custody" are no longer terms used to describe or delineate parenting arrangements. Instead, a parenting plan or consent order can provide for:
- who the child lives with;
- the time the child spends with each parent and others, including grandparents; and
- parental responsibility.
Parental responsibility provides you with the duties, powers, responsibilities and authority to make decisions in relation to the upbringing of your child or children, including the long term decisions of, for example, your child's education and health care.
When making a parenting order, the law imposes a presumption or starting point that both parents share equally parental responsibility. The presumption prevents either parent making a unilateral decision in relation to a decision involving the child's life without the consent of the other parent. The presumption will not apply in the case of family violence or abuse.
The presumption of equal shared parental responsibility is not a presumption or starting point that a child should spend equal time with each parent.
Should you wish to discuss arrangements for children, please
contact Trent Waller on (07) 3236 2900 or
twaller@crhlaw.com.au.
