Director-General, Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services and Fossett (No. 2)

The Director-General, Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services, as the Applicant, sought to discontinue an application for a return order concerning a child, M, born in December 2009, to New Zealand. The Respondent was Mr Fossett. The proceedings were before Kent J of the Family Court of Australia.

The central legal issue was whether the application for a child abduction return order, made under the Family Law (Child Abduction Convention) Regulations 1986 (Cth), should be discontinued. This arose in circumstances where the Respondent Father and the child had already departed Australia.

Kent J's reasoning was based on information received by the Applicant that the Respondent Father and the child had departed Australia and were returning or had returned to Dublin. Given this development, the Court determined that the proceedings were no longer necessary. The Court made orders discontinuing the application, discharging previous ex parte orders, removing the child and Respondent from the All Ports Watch Alert System, dismissing all other applications, and removing the matter from the Pending Cases List.