Rainford and Rainford

In the matter of *Rainford and Rainford*, heard by Gill J, the court was required to determine parenting orders concerning a child, B. The specific nature of the dispute between the parents, the mother and the father, is not detailed, but the orders made indicate a significant level of concern for the child's safety and well-being in relation to the father.

The central legal issues before the court were the allocation of parental responsibility, the child's living arrangements, and the extent of the father's contact with the child. Crucially, the court had to consider whether to impose restrictions on the father's ability to communicate with or approach the child, and whether such restrictions should be enforced by way of injunction with the power of arrest.

Gill J ordered that the mother have sole parental responsibility for the child and that the child live with the mother. The court further ordered that any time the child spends with or communicates with the father is at the mother's sole discretion. Significantly, the father was restrained by injunction, pursuant to s 68B of the *Family Law Act 1975*, from attempting to contact the child, approaching or entering any place where the child might reside, or approaching within one hundred metres of any school or day care centre the child might attend, unless with the mother's written consent. These injunctions were made for the personal protection of the child, and the court also made orders pursuant to s 68C of the *Family Law Act 1975* allowing for the father's arrest without a warrant by a police officer if there were reasonable grounds to believe he had breached the injunction by causing or threatening bodily harm to the child or by harassing, molesting, or stalking the child.