KASUN & PETROVIC

This matter concerned parenting orders made by Judge Newbrun concerning the time a child would spend with their father. The dispute revolved around the specific arrangements for the child's time with the father during school terms and holidays, including Christmas and Orthodox Christmas.

The court was required to determine the precise schedule for the child's time with the father, encompassing both weekdays and school holidays. This included establishing alternating arrangements for school terms and a detailed division of school holidays, particularly Term 4, with specific provisions for odd and even-numbered years. Furthermore, the court needed to set out the arrangements for Christmas and Orthodox Christmas, including specific times and alternating years for each parent.

Judge Newbrun's reasoning focused on creating a structured and predictable schedule for the child's time with the father. For school terms, the orders established a pattern of alternate weekends, with an extension to Tuesday if Monday was a public holiday or school development day, and a mid-week overnight stay in the intervening week. The holiday arrangements were designed to provide a roughly equal division of Term 4 holidays over a two-year cycle, with a mechanism to address any uneven number of days. Specific times and alternating years were also stipulated for Christmas and Orthodox Christmas to ensure a balanced allocation of these significant periods. The orders also permitted the father to use after-school care if he was unable to collect the child personally.