Re M (No 4) - BM v Director-General, Department of Family and Community Services (named Department of Community Services in Summons)

The proceeding concerned an application for interlocutory relief brought by BM against the Director-General of the Department of Family and Community Services (formerly the Department of Community Services). The dispute centred on the proposed restoration of two children, RM and HM, to the custody of a second defendant, who was not named in the provided text. The matter came before Ward JA.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether to grant injunctive relief to prevent the restoration of the children to the custody of the second defendant. This involved an assessment of the *parens patriae* jurisdiction of the court and the circumstances under which it could intervene to protect the welfare of children.

Ward JA dismissed the application for interlocutory relief. While the specific reasoning is not detailed in the provided text, the outcome indicates that the court was not satisfied that the threshold for granting such urgent intervention had been met at that stage of the proceedings. The court's decision to dismiss the application for interlocutory relief meant that the proposed restoration of the children was not, at that point, prevented by court order.