Circumstances where the Family Court may decide that a child spend no time at all with a parent

The 2021 case of Neil & Zang saw the Family Court dismiss an appeal against orders that a father spend no time at all with his child.

Under the Family Law Act, the primary considerations in determining what orders should be made in a parenting matter are:

1. the benefit to the child of having a meaningful relationship with both of the child's parents; and
2. the need to protect the child from physical or psychological harm from being subjected to, or exposed to, abuse, neglect or family violence.

In applying these considerations, the Court is to give greater weight to the consideration set out in paragraph (b).

It is rare that a court will order no contact between a parent and child, however the father’s conduct in this case indicates circumstances which may result in such an order being made.

Relevant conduct

Proceedings commenced after a violent confrontation between the father and the mother (and maternal grandparents) in the presence of the child. The father pleaded guilty to assaulting the maternal grandmother. In addition, a family violence order was made against the father for the protection of the mother and the child.

Subsequently, the mother would only allow the child to spend supervised time with the father. The father initially refused professional supervision, and then delayed engagement with the contact centre which was to supervise that time, resulting in the child not spending any time with him for 15 months.

When supervised time did finally go ahead, the father’s conduct was highly inappropriate.

• He informed a contact worker that he planned to take the child to another country.
• He made disparaging remarks about the mother and child’s home environment in front of the child, even after being asked to stop by the supervisor.
• He did not respond to the child’s distress when he accidentally hurt her, and consistently asserted his own needs over the needs of the child.
• He did not respond to supervisors’ attempts to have him contain his blame and hostility towards the mother.

The contact centre terminated further contact visits and felt obliged to make a mandatory report to the State child welfare authority due the risk of serious harm posed to the child by the father. The father was then not able to see his child for another 10 months after he refused the mother’s request that he attend counselling first. Further contact was eventually organised with another contact centre.

Supervised contact initially went well, however the contact centre terminated further contact visits after the father was unable to control his anger in the presence of his child and other families. He also attempted to intimidate contact centre staff.

The father refused to participate in the family report process and indicated that he would “never” again accept supervision of his time with the child. Unsupervised time with the child was deemed inappropriate due to the father’s inability and unwillingness to modify his behaviour. The court therefore determined that it was not possible to craft any regime of contact between the father and child that would not expose her to psychological harm.

Given the greater weight placed on the need to protect a child from physical or psychological harm over having a meaningful relationship with both parents, an order was made that the child would spend no time with the father at all.

Relationship breakdowns are difficult to navigate - and can become complex, both emotionally and legally. Our Family Law team advises on divorce and separation, children-related issues, property division, and child and spousal maintenance.