Tabano and Yabon (No 4)

In the matter of *Tabano and Yabon (No 4)*, Forrest J of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia considered a dispute concerning the living arrangements and parental responsibility for three children. The proceedings arose from a history of contested parenting orders, including initial consent orders placing the children with their mother, followed by a subsequent order placing them with their father, and then an interim order returning them to the mother's care pending trial. The father alleged that the children faced unacceptable risks of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in the mother's unsupervised care.

The court was required to determine the best interests of the children, specifically addressing allegations of unacceptable risk, the need for stability, the fractured relationship between the eldest child and her mother, and the eldest child's expressed wishes to live with her father. The court also considered the father's alleged "weaponisation" of the eldest child and the impact on her schooling.

Forrest J found that the mother and her husband did not pose an unacceptable risk of harm to the children. However, the court determined that the eldest child required stability and that the mother lacked the capacity to repair her relationship with her eldest daughter. Consequently, the court concluded it was in the eldest child's best interests to have her wishes to live with her father respected. The court also directed a referral to the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police concerning potential indictable offences under section 121 of the *Family Law Act 1975* (Cth) by the father's wife.

The court ordered that all previous parenting orders be discharged. The eldest child was to live with the father and have sole parental responsibility for her major long-term decisions, with no time or communication with the mother. The two younger children were to live with the mother, who was granted sole parental responsibility for their major long-term decisions, and they were to have no time or communication with the father. The Independent Children's Lawyer was discharged.