McCarthy and Kaminski and Anor

In the Family Court of Australia, Mr McCarthy (the Father) applied for interim orders concerning his children, B, Z, and C. Ms E Kaminski (the Mother) and Dr D Kaminski (the maternal grandmother) were also parties. The dispute centred on allegations of child abuse, specifically concerning the Father's contact with B, and the Independent Children's Lawyer's application to modify existing supervised contact orders.

The court was required to determine whether, on an interim basis, the requirement for supervised contact between the Father and the children should be removed pending final judgment. Additionally, the court considered an application by the Independent Children's Lawyer for a restraint on the children having contact with the maternal grandmother. The Father and Mother agreed to the removal of supervision for the Father's contact, while the maternal grandmother opposed this and sought orders for her own contact with the children.

Justice Kent, applying the principles from *M v M* (1988) 166 CLR 69, focused on whether the children were at an unacceptable risk of abuse on the balance of probabilities. The court found that the evidence presented regarding alleged inappropriate touching of B by the Father was not sufficient to satisfy this threshold, particularly given the circumstances in which the alleged incidents occurred and the Mother's current stance. The court also considered the paramount importance of the children having a meaningful relationship with both parents under section 60CC of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth), balanced against the need to protect them from harm.

The court ordered that paragraphs 3 and 4 of the existing orders of 30 November 2011, which mandated supervised contact, be vacated. The application by the maternal grandmother for interim contact orders was declined. The matter was adjourned for further written and oral submissions regarding final orders.