BRONWELL & BRONWELL

This case concerned parenting orders for a 12-year-old child. The mother sought for the child to live with her and spend five nights per fortnight with the father, while the father sought for the child to live with him and for the mother to have gradually increasing, initially supervised, time with the child. The dispute was heard by Loughnan J.

The court was required to determine the primary issue of where the child should live and the extent of each parent's time with the child, considering allegations of sexual abuse by the mother, high parental conflict, and the child's behaviour as interpreted by the father and the court expert. Additionally, the court had to decide on parental responsibility, with the mother seeking equal shared parental responsibility and the father seeking sole parental responsibility for health and education, and whether the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility should be rebutted.

Loughnan J reasoned that while the mother loved the child, she had not provided stable parenting in recent years outside of a supervised setting and had failed to promote the child's relationship with her father. The court found that the mother's proposed arrangements would likely interfere with the father-child relationship and potentially lead to an unhealthy enmeshment between mother and daughter, to the child's disadvantage. The court also noted that both parents had compromised mental health which had impaired their decision-making. Despite submissions regarding the father's perceived lack of insight into the child's need for a relationship with her mother and his response to a suicide threat, the court ultimately found that the father was better equipped to promote the child's best interests. The presumption of equal shared parental responsibility was rebutted due to the high parental conflict.

The court ordered that the father have sole parental responsibility for the child, subject to him advising the mother in advance of decisions and taking her views into account. The child was ordered to live with the father, with gradually increasing time allocated to the mother over several stages, commencing with limited supervised time and progressing to unsupervised time. Specific provisions were made for holidays, special days, and communication between the parents, including restraints on denigrating the other parent. The court also ordered the father to pay half of the Independent Children's Lawyer's costs.