Miller and Cooper (No 2)

In *Miller and Cooper (No 2)*, Berman J of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia considered an application concerning the time spent between a father and his child, B, born in 2009, and the father's parental responsibility for the child's education. The dispute arose in the context of an existing order from 3 September 2015, which the father sought to have suspended.

The court was required to determine the arrangements for the child's time with the father, including specific dates and times, and to address the father's role in the child's education during that period. Crucially, the court also had to consider the issuance of a Recovery Order under section 67U of the *Family Law Act 1975* should the child not come into the father's care as ordered, and the implications for the father's time with the child if such an order became necessary. Furthermore, the court was asked to grant an injunction restraining the mother from attending the child's school during the father's period of care.

Berman J reasoned that it was in the child's best interests to spend time with the father during a specified period in late November and early December 2015. The court ordered that the mother ensure the child attended school on the first day of this period and that she take steps to amend school records to reflect the father as a parent and include his contact details. The father was granted sole parental responsibility for the child's education during his time with the child, with provisions allowing him to attend the school. The court also made orders restraining the mother from attending the child's school during this period and directed the father to forward a copy of the order to the school principal. In the event the child was not delivered into the father's care, a Recovery Order was to issue, authorising law enforcement to find and return the child to the father, with an extension of the father's time with the child if the Recovery Order was executed.