Department of Family and Community Services and Keen & Ors

The case involved the Department of Family and Community Services (the mother) and the father and paternal grandmother, concerning parenting orders for four children. The dispute centred on the allocation of parental responsibility, residence, and time arrangements for the children, particularly in light of allegations of family violence and the children's relationships with their parents and grandparents. The matter was heard by Austin J.

The court was required to determine whether the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility applied, given the grounds to believe the father had engaged in family violence and the mother's exposure to an unacceptable risk of such violence. Further issues included the children's best interests, their meaningful relationships with both parents, the father's insight into the children's emotional needs, the mother's limited parenting capacity due to psychological health, and the residence of the eldest child, who expressed opposition to living with the mother and maternal grandparents. The court also considered the adverse repercussions of changing the current residential arrangements for the children and the risk of emotional harm to the younger children if they spent time with the father without supervision.

Austin J reasoned that the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility did not apply due to the credible belief of family violence and the unacceptable risk to the mother. The court found that the eldest child's views carried considerable weight, leading to the conclusion that he could continue living with the father and/or paternal grandmother in accordance with his wishes. For the three younger children, who were thriving in the mother's care, the court ordered that the mother and maternal grandparents share equal parental responsibility for their residence. The court also determined that the eldest child could not be forced to spend time with the mother, and the younger children faced an unacceptable risk of emotional harm in the father's unsupervised care.

Consequently, the court ordered that parental responsibility for the eldest child would vest with either the father and paternal grandmother, or the mother and maternal grandparents, depending on the child's choice of residence. The mother and maternal grandparents were ordered to share equal parental responsibility for the three youngest children. The court also made specific orders for the four children to spend time together at a contact centre during school holidays, with supervised contact and written correspondence between the children and the non-residential parent/grandparents, leaving the specifics of communication to the discretion of those exercising parental responsibility.