Director-General, Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services and Tallulah

The Director-General, Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services, as the applicant, sought orders for the return of three children, L, J, and B, to New Zealand, and sought to restrain their mother, Ms Tallulah, from removing them from Australia. The matter came before Kent J of the Family Court of Australia.

The central legal issue before the court was whether the children should be returned to New Zealand pursuant to the *Family Law (Child Abduction Convention) Regulations 1986* (Cth), which implement the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. This required the court to determine if the children had been wrongfully removed or retained within the meaning of the Convention.

Kent J reasoned that the Convention's purpose was to secure the prompt return of children wrongfully removed or retained. The court applied the principles of the Convention, considering the habitual residence of the children and the circumstances of their removal or retention. The court found that the conditions for ordering the return of the children to New Zealand were met.

The court ordered that the children L, J, and B be returned to New Zealand on or before 30 January 2015, with their arrival in New Zealand to be on or before 31 January 2015. Injunctions were issued restraining the Respondent Mother from removing the children from the Commonwealth of Australia and from a specific address in Queensland pending their return. The court also made orders concerning the placement of the children and their mother on the Family Law Watchlist, the release of passports, and empowered various law enforcement agencies to give effect to the orders. All other applications were dismissed.