Wentz & Wentz
[2024] FedCFamC2F 1638
•5 December 2024
FEDERAL CIRCUIT AND FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA
(DIVISION 2)
Wentz & Wentz [2024] FedCFamC2F 1638
File number(s): PAC 5697 of 2024 Judgment of: JUDGE STREET Date of judgment: 5 December 2024 Catchwords: FAMILY LAW – PARENTING – Ex Parte – injunction restraining removal of the children from the Commonwealth of Australia – Airport Watchlist Legislation: Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) Division: Division 2 Family Law Number of paragraphs: 7 Date of hearing: 26 October 2024 Place: Sydney For the Applicant: The Applicant appeared via telephone For the Respondent The Respondent did not appear ORDERS
PAC 5697 of 2024 FEDERAL CIRCUIT AND FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA (DIVISION 2)
BETWEEN: MR WENTZ
Applicant
AND: MS WENTZ
Respondent
ORDER MADE BY:
JUDGE STREET
DATE OF ORDER:
26 OCTOBER 2024
THE COURT ORDERS THAT:
1.Leave is granted to the applicant to make an ex-parte application for injunctive orders under s 68B of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) and for the commencement of parenting proceedings under Pt VII of the Act.
2.The respondent Ms Wentz is restrained, until further order, under section 68B of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), from removing or attempting to remove or permitting the removal of X, 4 years old (DOB: 2020) and/or Y, 2 Years old (DOB: 2022), both having dual citizenship and Australian and Country B passports, from the Commonwealth of Australia.
3.The Australian Federal Police are requested to give to order 2 by placing the name of each child, X, born in 2020 and Y, born in 2022, on the airport watch list enforce at all point at arrive and departure of the Commonwealth of Australia and maintain the children’ s name on that watch list, until the Court otherwise orders.
4.The applicant is directed to file and serve by email an Initiating Application for parenting orders in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2), on or before 11:00am (QLD time) on 28 October 2024.
5.The proceedings are directed are to be returned before this Court at 2:00pm QLD time by video and/or audio-link pursuant to Part 6 Division 6 of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia Act 2021 (Cth) on 28 October 2024.
6.The applicant is directed to forward a copy of these sealed orders to the respondent by email as soon as he receives to the respondent.
7.The duty registrar is directed to forward a copy of the sealed orders forthwith the AFP for urgent placement on the airport watchlist.
8.The applicant is directed file and serve an affidavit annexing the identification material that has been forwarded to the Court and confirming the facts that they recalls identify to the Court on or before 11:00am (AEST).
9.The Court reserves its written reasons.
Note: The form of the order is subject to the entry in the Court’s records.
Note: This copy of the Court’s Reasons for judgment may be subject to review to remedy minor typographical or grammatical errors (r 10.14(b) Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth)), or to record a variation to the order pursuant to r 10.13 Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth).
Part XIVB of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) makes it an offence, except in very limited circumstances, to publish an account of proceedings that identify persons, associated persons, or witnesses involved in family law proceedings.
IT IS NOTED that publication of this judgment by this Court under a pseudonym has been approved pursuant to subsection 114Q(2) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).
REASONS FOR JUDGMENT
JUDGE STREET
This was an Ex Parte application made by the applicant father, Mr Wentz (“the father”), for an order that his two children, X, born in 2020, now four years old, and his daughter Y born in 2022 now two years old (“the children”), be placed on the airport watch list. The hearing proceeded Ex Parte, and it was recorded on Microsoft Teams.
The father identified that he had come back from work having been away between Tuesday and Friday and discovered that the respondent mother (“the mother”) had left and had packed up and removed the possessions of the two children. The father contacted the Duty Registrar today being a Saturday and the Registrar contacted this Court at approximately 4.30pm. The Court listed the matter for a telephone hearing to take place at 5.30 pm.
The father identified that he married the respondent in 2019, and that his wife was from Country B, and that the two children had dual passports, Australian and Country B. The father expressed that he was concerned having been unable to contact the mother through any of their social contacts in Australia or in Country B, that she may be seeking to depart Australia with the children.
The Court noted that Country B is a Hague Convention Country. The father indicated that the mother had gone overseas before with the two children in late 2023 on her own and had returned. The father identified that they had commenced living in separate bedrooms approximately six months ago and that he told the mother approximately two weeks ago that he wanted a divorce.
The Court was satisfied, taking into account the provisions of pt 7 of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) (“the Act”) that it is in the best interests of the two children that there be an injunction granted under s 68B of the Act to restrain the respondent mother from removing the children from the Commonwealth of Australia and make an order for their names to be placed on the airport's watch list and for the immediate notification of the Australian Federal Police in that regard.
The Court will also make procedural orders for the matter to come back for the Court at a convenient time to the father in Queensland. The application was made to this Court in New South Wales. The Court will be sitting in Perth at the time the application comes back before it on Monday 28 October 2024.
It is for these reasons the Court makes the above Ex Parte orders.
I certify that the preceding seven (7) numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Judgment of Judge Street. Associate:
Dated: 5 December 2024
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