JOHNS & JOHNS

The applicant mother sought to vary existing parenting orders concerning the parties' child. The respondent father opposed this application. The matter came before Hannam J of the Family Court of Australia.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether there had been a significant change in the child's circumstances since the making of the existing parenting orders, such that it would be in the child's best interests to reconsider those arrangements. This required the Court to consider and apply the principles established in *Rice & Asplund* (1979) FLC 90-725 regarding the threshold for varying final parenting orders.

Hannam J found that the mother had not satisfied the threshold required to warrant a fresh hearing. The Court was not persuaded that there had been a sufficient change in the child's circumstances to justify disturbing the final parenting orders. Consequently, the Court determined that it was not in the child's best interests to reconsider the existing parenting arrangements.

The mother's Initiating Application was dismissed. The father was granted leave to file and serve an application for costs, with the mother to have a further period to respond.