How is Access determined?
- The welfare of the child is the paramount consideration
- The child’s wishes and preferences may also be taken into consideration by the Court
- The Court also aims to provide the parent who does not have Care and Control of the child with sufficiently regular contact and adequate opportunities to develop and maintain a good parent-child relationship with the child and so that the child is not deprived of contact with either parent
- The Court may restrict or deny access to a parent if it is not in the best interests of the child
- General observations on how the Court determines which parent should be awarded with care and control:
- The terms of access should be fair to all parties as much as possible (e.g. considering that the parent without care and control of the child will already be deprived of a substantial amount of contact with the child because the child does not reside with that parent)
- Parents should discuss and agree (and compromise, if necessary) on an arrangement for access (e.g. weekday access, weekend access, overnight access, overseas access, public / school holiday access) based on what is fair, reasonable and logistically feasible
- o If the parents are unable to agree on the terms of access, the Court will decide after considering the parents’ respective reasons
