Shared parental responsibility

Unless there is violence, abuse or neglect from which a child needs to be protected, or it is demonstrated not to be in a child’s best interests, the Court must apply a presumption that it is in a child’s best interests for the parents to have equal shared parental responsibility.

‘Parental responsibility’ means all of the duties and responsibilities that parents have in relation to their children. When the Family Law Act refers to ‘equal shared parental responsibility’, it’s referring to two parents sharing these responsibilities equally between them, so that both parents share the responsibility for deciding significant, long-term issues such as schooling, living arrangements, name changes and medical treatment.

If the Court decides that it will apply the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility, it must consider whether spending equal time with both parents is in the child’s best interests. If the Court decides that an order for equal time is not in the child’s best interests and reasonably practicable, the Family Law Act says that it must then consider whether making an order for substantial and significant time to be spent with both parents is both in the child’s best interests and reasonably practicable.

Substantial and significant time has a special meaning in the Family Law Act: it involves a child spending time with both parents across the range of weekends, weekdays and holidays, so that each parent gets to be involved in the child’s daily routine and on occasions that are significant to the child and each parent, such as birthdays, mother’s day and father’s day.