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

The Director-General, Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services, acting as the State Central Authority, applied to the Family Court of Australia for the return of a child to New Zealand under the Family Law (Child Abduction Convention) Regulations 1986 (Cth). The respondent to the application was the child's paternal grandmother, Ms Payne. The application arose from an agreement for the child and his mother to relocate to Australia, after which the mother requested the child's return to New Zealand. The court was also asked to consider a request for legal assistance for the respondent.

The court was required to determine several significant legal issues concerning the application for the child's return. These included whether the child was habitually resident in New Zealand at the time of the alleged wrongful retention, whether the mother had consented to the child remaining in Australia or acquiesced in that position, and whether the application, filed outside the 12-month period stipulated in the Regulations, could proceed given the child's settled environment. Furthermore, the court needed to consider if the child would be at grave risk if an order for return was made.

Justice Kent acknowledged the complexity of the issues and the potential difficulty for the self-represented respondent in navigating these legal challenges. In light of these complexities and the parties' joint request for assistance, the court ordered that a transcript of the proceedings and the reasons for judgment be published and provided to the President of the Bar Association of Queensland. This was to facilitate an attempt to obtain legal representation for the respondent for the final hearing. The court also approved the publication of the judgment under a pseudonym pursuant to section 121(9)(g) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).