Parental responsibility

Section 61B of the Family Law Act 1975 (‘the Act’) defines parental responsibility as ‘all the duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which, by law, parents have in relation to children’. Simply put, it encompasses the duty parents carry in making crucial, long-term decisions concerning a child’s welfare and development, such as:

• The child’s education (both current and future)
• The child’s religious and cultural upbringing
• The child’s health
• The child’s name; and
• Changes to the child’s living arrangements that make it significantly more difficult for the child to spend time with a parent.

It is important that when you are negotiating with your former partner or seeking Orders from the Court, that you consider how decisions of this nature will be made in the future in order to reduce the likelihood of conflict or further litigation in the event that a decision is required to be made.

Unless and until a parenting Order is made which affects parental responsibility, each of the parents of a child who is not yet 18 has parental responsibility for a child. Accordingly, each parent is entitled to make decisions for the care and welfare of the child.

The amendments to the Act which came into effect in May 2024 repealed the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility. Instead, section 61CA of the Act requires that, where it is safe to do so, parents consult each other and make a genuine effort to come to a joint decision about major long-term issues in relation to child.

If you are concerned that your former partner is making decisions of this nature without consulting you or in direct contradiction with what you think is in the child’s best interests, it is important that you act immediately and are not seen, by virtue of your delay, to be acquiescing to those decisions. You should contact us immediately to discuss your options.