Dejna and Dijak

This matter concerned parenting orders made by Henderson J in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. The dispute involved the relocation of two children to the Netherlands, with the father seeking permission to relocate the children and have sole parental responsibility for certain decisions. The mother was also involved in proceedings concerning Dutch Orders made in October 2019, which she intended to appeal.

The court was required to determine a range of issues concerning the children's welfare and living arrangements. These included whether to discharge prior parenting orders, remove the children from the Airport Family Watchlist, permit the father to relocate the children to the Netherlands, and grant the father sole parental responsibility for specific decisions related to their schooling, residency, healthcare, and insurance in the Netherlands. The court also had to consider arrangements for the children to spend time with the mother both before and after relocation, the registration of the orders in the Netherlands, and various restraints and additional orders to facilitate the relocation and ongoing communication.

In reaching its decision, the court made orders by consent and pending further order. It discharged all prior parenting orders and removed the children from the Airport Family Watchlist. Crucially, the father was permitted to relocate the children to the Netherlands, with specific provisions for the mother's travel and the children's departure by 8 February 2020. The father was granted sole parental responsibility for key decisions regarding the children's life in the Netherlands, including school enrolments, residency registration, healthcare, and private health insurance. The court also made detailed orders regarding the children's time with the mother, the registration of the court orders in the Netherlands, and imposed restraints on both parties to prevent obstruction of the relocation and to prohibit denigration of the other parent.

The court ordered the father to pay a sum of €14,979.00 to the mother's legal representative by 25 January 2020, which the father asserted complied with Dutch Orders. The court also requested that its orders be recognised by the Court of the Netherlands as interim parenting orders. Further orders pending further court consideration included the children living with the father in the Netherlands, the father retaining the children's new Dutch passports, and the mother being restrained from attending the children's schools in the Netherlands. The parties' parenting applications were stood over for further consideration.