Children’s Matters

Parenting Orders in Australia: Court Considerations & Decision-Making Guide 2025

Learn how Australian courts make parenting orders in 2025. Comprehensive guide to joint decision-making, child custody arrangements, and factors affecting court decisions.

How Family Courts Make Parenting Decisions

Primary Considerations in Child Custody

1. Children's Right to Meaningful Relationships

   • The benefit of maintaining strong connections with both parents

   • Fostering healthy parent-child relationships

2. Safety First: Protecting Children

   • Protection from physical and psychological harm

   • Prevention of exposure to family violence

   • Safeguarding against neglect or abuse

   ⚠️ Important: Child safety always takes precedence over all other considerations.

The additional considerations are:

1. Children's Perspectives

   • Views and preferences of the children

   • Their maturity level and understanding

   • No pressure on children to express views

2. Relationships and Communication

   • Existing bonds with parents, siblings, and grandparents

   • Quality of relationships with other significant people

   • Current living arrangements and family dynamics

Before considering court proceedings, parents should attempt to reach an agreement through negotiation and mediation. Our team can assist you in achieving a negotiated outcome for your parenting arrangements, which may be formalised through consent orders or parenting plans.

Equal Shared Parental Responsibility

When making parenting orders, the court will presume it’s in the children’s best interests for the parents to have equal shared parental responsibility, unless there has been child abuse or family violence by a parent or a person who lives with the parent. Other evidence may also convince the court equal shared parental responsibility isn’t in the children’s best interests.

Equal shared parental responsibility means both parents share decision making for major long-term issues about the children.

This includes making decisions about the children’s:

• Education;

• Religious and cultural upbringing;

• Health;

• Name;

• Living arrangements.

It doesn’t include day-to-day decisions about the children’s care, such as what the children eat or wear. If the court decides both parents have equal shared parental responsibility, then they must try to reach an agreement about major long-term decisions.

Equal shared parental responsibility isn’t the same as equal parenting time.

As of 2024, "Equal Shared Parental Responsibility" (ESPR) has indeed been replaced with "Joint Decision-Making About Major Long-Term Issues." This change came with the amendments to the Family Law Act 1975 that took effect from 6 May 2024.

Parenting time

If the court decides you have equal shared parental responsibility, they must also consider whether it’s practical and in the children’s best interests to spend equal time, or substantial and significant time with each parent.

Substantial and significant time includes children spending weekdays, weekends and holidays with each parent and each parent having meaningful involvement with the children’s daily routine. It includes spending time with children at special events such as birthdays and school concerts.

When deciding whether an arrangement is practical, the court will look at:

• How equal or substantial and significant time will affect the children

• How far apart the people involved live

• Each parent’s ability to share care and communicate with one another

• Any other consideration it thinks is relevant.

Once a parenting agreement is reached

There are two ways to document the parenting agreement:-

• A parenting plan;

• A consent order.