Weiss and Arnold (No 2)

This matter concerned an application before Justice Murphy of the Family Court of Australia. The proceedings involved the father, the mother, and an Independent Children’s Lawyer, with the central dispute revolving around parenting arrangements for a child, Z. The court was required to consider various applications concerning the child's time with the father, both supervised and unsupervised, pending the resumption of the final hearing.

The legal issues before the court included the father's application for unsupervised time with the child, applications by the mother and the Independent Children’s Lawyer to prevent the father from spending any time with the child, and an alternative application by the mother to vary existing orders for supervised time from fortnightly to monthly. The court also had to determine the terms of further evidence to be presented and the publication of certain documents.

Justice Murphy dismissed the father's application for unsupervised time and the applications to prevent the father from spending any time with the child. The mother's alternative application to reduce supervised time to monthly was also dismissed. The court adjourned the further hearing for three days commencing on 30 November 2009, ordering that any additional affidavit material be filed and served by 13 November 2009. The court also made specific orders regarding the continuation of supervised time at a contact centre, the publication of documents to relevant authorities, and granted leave for the Independent Children’s Lawyer to forward documents to a Ms S and to issue a subpoena to a Dr G. Further directions were given for the preparation of a transcript and for any future parenting applications to be heard by Justice Murphy via video-link.