Batkin and Batkin

The Family Court of Australia considered interim parenting orders in proceedings between Ms Batkin (the Mother) and Mr Batkin (the Father) concerning their three children. Previous consent orders made in November 2011 aimed to reintroduce the Father to the children's lives through therapeutic contact, given the parties' dysfunctional relationship and the children's lack of contact with the Father for approximately four years. However, the Mother had not complied with these orders, and the children had not seen the Father. The Independent Children’s Lawyer sought further interim orders due to the Mother's entrenched views and non-compliance.

The court was required to determine whether to make interim orders for the children to spend time with the Father, and if so, the nature and conditions of that contact. A key issue was the Mother's continued non-compliance with previous orders and her apparent influence on the children's views of the Father. The court also had to consider the paramountcy of the children's best interests, including the weight to be given to their views, in light of expert evidence and previous findings of family violence between the parents.

Justice Kent found that the Mother had not complied with previous orders and had entrenched views against the Father spending time with the children, despite expert advice. The court noted that previous findings by Murphy J indicated the Mother had exaggerated allegations of violence by the Father towards the children and that her own negative feelings towards the Father were likely being communicated to them. Applying the principles of section 60CC of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth), the court determined that it was in the children's best interests to have supervised time with the Father, acknowledging the potential psychological detriment of growing up without a father or without the opportunity to form their own opinion of him.

The court made interim orders for the children to live with the Mother but to spend supervised time with the Father at a contact centre for a period of four hours on the first Saturday of each month for six months, commencing 2 March 2013. Crucially, the court ordered that a warrant for the Mother's arrest would be executed if she failed to deliver the children to the contact centre on the specified date, with the intention of bringing her before the court and facilitating an urgent parenting assessment. Further orders addressed communication between the parties and the provision of information regarding the children.