The best inter­est of the child is the guid­ing prin­ci­ple under Aus­tralian Fam­i­ly Law. There is no for­mu­la as to how many days the chil­dren are to spend with each of their par­ents and the law recog­nis­es that each child and fam­i­ly is different. 

Chil­dren have a right to enjoy a mean­ing­ful rela­tion­ship with each of their par­ents and to be pro­tect­ed from psy­cho­log­i­cal and phys­i­cal harm. Usu­al­ly par­ents are able to agree with each oth­er as to the amount of time that a child will spend with each of them. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, this is not always the case and at times the need to pro­tect the child becomes the most impor­tant issue when con­sid­er­ing the amount of time and con­tact they will have with each of their parents.

The fol­low­ing ques­tions are the most com­mon­ly asked when con­sid­er­ing future arrange­ments for children:

• Is the law that the chil­dren spend 50:50 time between their parents?
• How does the Court deter­mine cus­tody, access or time between parents
• Can we share the costs of the nan­ny or au pair?
• When do chil­dren get to choose?
• How to stop my ex-part­ner chang­ing arrange­ments with respect to the children?
• Can the chil­dren be tak­en over­seas with­out both par­ents’ consent?
• How does men­tal ill­ness, per­son­al­i­ty dis­or­ders and addic­tions affect par­ent­ing arrangements?
• Do we need court orders about our children?
• What hap­pens if the oth­er par­ent dies and there are par­ent­ing orders?
• Do grand­par­ents have rights?
• Can I change a chil­dren’s order after it has been made by the Court?

As Fam­i­ly Law Spe­cial­ists and Doyles recog­nised Fam­i­ly Lawyers, we pride our­selves on our abil­i­ty to help you through the most com­plex of sit­u­a­tions be it main­te­nance, chil­dren or prop­er­ty related.

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