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Police, Child Safety and the Court: Information Sharing in Parenting Matters

Where there are allegations of child abuse or family violence or a child is at risk of child abuse or family violence, the Court must take prompt action to consider what interim, and procedural orders should be made to:

 

  1. enable appropriate evidence about the allegations as expeditiously as possible; and
  2. to protect the child or any parties to the proceedings. [1]

 

Without limiting the types of interim orders the Court might make to best protect a child or parties to the proceedings, the Court must consider whether an injunction for the personal protection of a child or another person ought to be granted under section 68B of the Family Law Act.[2] An injunction of this nature, often mirrors similar conditions imposed under state-based Domestic Violence legislation, including preventing a party from entering or remaining at a residence, place of employment, place of education or another specified area.

 

When considering what evidence might be appropriate to answer to any allegations of child abuse or family violence, the Court will most often make orders at the First Return Court date for an information sharing agency to provide information to the Court. Most frequently, these agencies are the relevant state or territories’ Police and/or Child Safety department.

 

The Court is empowered by two sections of the Family Law Act to request information from an information sharing agency:

 

  1. Section 67ZBD – for the agency to provide particulars of the documents or information; or
  2. Section 67ZBE – for the agency to provide documents.

 

An easy way to distinguish between the two sections is that a section 67ZBD report will only produce a summary of the ‘Documents’ the agency has in their possession whereas a section 67ZBE report would produce ‘Everything’.

 

The type of documents or information that an information sharing agency might provide to the Court in either report includes documents or information that contain:

 

  1. abuse, neglect or family violence to which a child to whom the proceedings relate has been, or is suspected to have been, subjected or exposed;
  2. family violence to which a party to the proceedings has been exposed, or in which a party to the proceedings has engaged, to the extent it may affect a child to whom the proceedings relate;
  3. any risk or potential risk of a child to whom the proceedings relate being subjected or exposed to abuse, neglect or family violence;
  4. any risk or potential risk of a party to the proceedings being subjected to, or engaging in, family violence, to the extent any such family violence may affect a child to whom the proceedings relate;
  5. notifications to the agency of suspected abuseof a child or party to whom the proceedings relate;
  6. notifications to the agency of suspected abuse, by a party to the proceedings, of any other child.

 

Once the report is returned to the Court by the information sharing agency, typically the Court will make orders in chambers for the parties and/or their solicitors to either:

 

  1. Receive a copy of the report, which would most often need to be returned to the Court or destroyed upon the conclusion of the parenting matter; or
  2. Have leave to attend the subpoena section of the Court and inspect the report.

 

The decision for how a report is distributed will often fall to the discretion of the Court having regard to the subject matter of the report. If appropriate, other jointly appointed experts, such as a Court Child Expert/Family Report Writer or Psychologist/Psychiatrist, might also be granted leave to have a copy of the report and/or have leave to inspect the report in the preparation of a Child Impact Report, Family Report, Psychiatric Assessment etc.

 

The content of a report produced by an information sharing agency is most often used to assist parties in limiting issues in dispute ideally with the hope that parenting matters resolved. In other cases, the content of the reports might be used as evidence at an interim hearing or final hearing to assist the Court in making other orders that might be appropriate to best protect a child or parties to the proceedings.

 

[1] Family Law Act (Cth) 1975, s 67ZBB(2).

[2] Ibid, s 67ZBB(5) and s 68B.

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