Director-General, Department of Family and Community Services and Condor

The Director-General, Department of Family and Community Services, as the lawful guardian of the child M, brought proceedings against the father, Mr Condor, and the mother, Ms Condor, concerning the child's removal from Australia to Germany. The proceedings were heard by Le Poer Trench J in the Family Court of Australia.

The central legal issues before the Court were to determine whether, at the time of the child's removal from Australia, both parents held rights of custody under Australian law, and whether the child's subsequent retention in Germany constituted a wrongful retention under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction. The Court was also required to consider the ongoing nature of these custody rights in the absence of contrary court orders.

Le Poer Trench J declared that both the father and mother possessed rights of custody over the child M under Australian law at the time of the child's removal to Germany. The Court further declared that, absent any court order to the contrary, the father's rights of custody under Australian law and the Convention would continue to subsist. Consequently, the Court declared that if the Convention was applicable and no court order interfered with the father's custody rights, the mother's retention of the child in Germany constituted a wrongful retention under article 3 of the Convention.