Parenting Consent Orders: Drafting and Filing

Take Parenting Instructions Alongside the Financial Matter

Take instructions about each child before converting the parents’ agreement into proposed orders. Confirm who you represent and who can give instructions. Identify every person whose participation is required, including a current carer or person affected by an existing order.

Record the child’s current care, developmental needs and schooling. Ask about health needs, communication with each parent, travel and safe handovers. Obtain instructions about major long-term decisions separately from the time the child spends with each parent.

Collect existing parenting orders, parenting plans and family violence orders. Record child-protection involvement and any other proceedings. Establish whether agreed words conceal unresolved questions about transport, holiday priority or the start of a fortnightly cycle.

Speak with your client privately about pressure and safety. A signed property bargain does not answer whether the client freely agrees to parenting terms. If coercion or risk undermines the instructions, address that before arranging signatures. The guide to parenting arrangements after separation covers the earlier choice of arrangements.

Check the Parenting Law and Court Route

Select the court and governing law before choosing forms. Most Australian parenting applications use the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (FCFCOA) under Part VII of the Family Law Act 1975. Western Australia has its own court and forms.

The Family Court of Western Australia distinguishes children whose parents are or were married from ex-nuptial children. Its consent application guidance directs practitioners to the Family Law Act for the former and Part 5 of the Family Court Act 1997 for the latter. Identify the applicable framework in your file.

Under the federal framework, the child’s best interests are paramount. Equal time is not an automatic entitlement, and there is no presumption requiring equal shared parental responsibility. The Court’s parenting law explanation distinguishes time arrangements from decision-making responsibility. Draft each from the child’s circumstances.

Choose the procedural route as well:

• For a fresh FCFCOA consent application, use the Application for Consent Orders and proposed orders, with the required risk notice.
• For settlement within existing parenting proceedings, lodge agreed orders in that proceeding and complete the current-case annexures. Follow any case-specific directions.
• For a fresh Western Australian application, use Form 11 with the minute and supporting documents. An agreement in an existing case uses a minute instead.

The federal consent kit explains the fresh-application route. Parenting and property orders can share an application, but each needs its own legal assessment. Keep the property provisions within the separate consent orders drafting process.

Draft Workable Parenting Terms

Write numbered orders that identify the person who must act and exactly what they must do. Specify the time and place of each handover, who transports the child and the notice needed for an agreed exception.

Run the proposed arrangements through an ordinary school week and a school holiday. Decide which clause takes priority when a special occasion overlaps the regular cycle. State when the cycle begins and whether it continues through holidays. Resolve different meanings of “after school” on a pupil-free day.

Keep any disputed instruction in your advice and negotiation record. Do not insert equal time, a holiday split or joint decision-making because a precedent includes it. Obtain instructions about communication methods and whether direct communication is safe.

For an agreement clause, identify how consent is recorded and what continues if the parents cannot agree. An arrangement left entirely “as agreed” gives the client little guidance when agreement ends.

Queensland parenting consent orders ordinarily use the applicable federal process. There is no separate Queensland family-court consent scheme that replaces the FCFCOA application and risk requirements.

Parenting Consent Orders Example

The following fictional minute connects care with practical obligations. It assumes one school-aged child and agreed unsupervised time, with no identified safety concern affecting these arrangements.

Parent A, Parent B and Child are identity labels to replace with the parties’ and child’s full particulars. Agreed Venue means one specific handover location, including its street address, settled before signing. These are drafting variables, not completed filing particulars.

1. The Child live with Parent A except during the time specified in order 2.
2. The Child spend time with Parent B every second weekend from 3 pm Friday until 5 pm Sunday. The first weekend begins on the first Friday after these orders are made. This cycle continues during school holidays.
3. Parent B collect the Child from Parent A at Agreed Venue at the start of each weekend and return the Child there at its end.
4. While the Child is with Parent A, Parent A facilitate a telephone call between the Child and Parent B at 6 pm each Wednesday. While the Child is with Parent B, Parent B facilitate a call with Parent A at 6 pm Saturday. Each call last up to 15 minutes, having regard to the Child’s wishes and needs.
5. Neither parent take the Child outside Australia without the other parent’s prior written consent or a further court order. A parent requesting consent provide the proposed itinerary, accommodation contact details and return arrangements at least 28 days before departure.
6. The parents may agree in writing to a different time or handover for a particular weekend. Without that written agreement, orders 2 and 3 apply.

The care allocation and cycle appear in orders 1 and 2. Transport at both ends belongs to Parent B under order 3. The call provisions identify the facilitating parent, while order 5 makes overseas travel conditional. A one-off change leaves the fallback in order 6 intact.

Assess these fictional instructions against the particular child’s needs. The extract leaves major long-term decision-making and other case-specific terms for separate instructions. Overseas travel also needs assessment of passport arrangements, existing restraints and any removal risk. The Court’s parenting-order examples illustrate different clauses, without prescribing an arrangement for every family.

This extract is not a ready-to-file form or a court-approved minute. A term withholding time until a property payment clears would make the child’s arrangements depend on the financial bargain. Address any payment default through the appropriate financial provisions instead.

Prepare the Application and Risk Information

Prepare the application from the settled instructions and supporting records. Use the following sequence before lodging parenting orders by consent.

1. Gather the child’s particulars and household information. Collect existing orders and parenting plans, and details of relevant proceedings or child-protection involvement.
2. Complete the selected court’s application. Explain the child-focused basis for the proposed arrangements and answer the questions about decision-making and safety consistently with the instructions.
3. Prepare the proposed orders in the court’s format. For the FCFCOA, retain the signed version and an identical unsigned, editable Word document. Remove tracked changes, images and macros from that Word copy. Use the proposed-orders template.
4. Complete the risk material for the selected route. Record the allegations and explain how the proposed terms address the risks, including any supervision or protected handover arrangements.
5. Compare the application and proposed orders with the existing orders. Resolve inconsistent names, care periods or safety provisions before signatures. Arrange the declarations and signatures required by the actual form.

For a fresh FCFCOA application seeking parenting orders, the Notice of child abuse, family violence or risk is mandatory. Its instructions say an affidavit is not required with the notice for that consent application. Different requirements apply to allegations accompanying an Initiating Application or Response, and new facts can require a further notice.

In existing FCFCOA parenting proceedings, each party or their lawyer completes a separate current-case annexure, unless the Court advises otherwise. Attach these to the signed proposed orders. The annexure does not remove the obligation to file or update a risk notice when required.

For Western Australia, complete Form 11’s questions about other cases, violence orders and child-welfare involvement. Its Form 4 instructions apply where abuse or family violence allegations or risks affect the parenting decision. Form NP5 addresses allegations in relevant current-case consent orders. The NP5 form expressly excludes a fresh Application for Consent Orders.

Keep supporting-document requirements specific to the jurisdiction. Western Australia requires birth certificates and certified existing child-related orders, with marriage and divorce documents where applicable. The separate application for consent orders form guide covers the broader application process.

File, Answer Requisitions and Check the Sealed Orders

Lodge the agreed version through the correct court portal, then distinguish filing acceptance from the making of orders. Keep the lodged bundle and file reference together.

For a fresh federal application, use the Commonwealth Courts Portal. The filing procedure explains the upload sequence and registry alternative when electronic filing is unavailable. File within 90 days of the first signed Statement of Truth, as the kit requires.

Western Australian applications use the eCourts Portal. Form 11 uses affidavits, and its filing period runs for 90 days from the first affidavit. Arrange witnessed affidavits and the minute’s signatures under that court’s requirements.

The FCFCOA fee schedule lists $215 for an Application for Consent Orders. The Western Australian schedule lists $215 for Form 11. GST does not apply to either court fee. Allow for an applicable fee exemption and its supporting evidence. Existing-case steps can have different fee consequences from a fresh consent application.

If a registrar requests more information, answer the actual concern before resubmitting. Explain a disclosed risk that the proposed terms leave unaddressed. Correct an impossible handover or inconsistent care period with the parties, then obtain renewed agreement and any required signatures. Replace an inconsistent Word copy with one matching the agreed version.

When orders are made, compare the sealed document clause by clause with the final agreed draft. Check the parties and child, commencement, care cycle, handover obligations and every exception. Record any court changes and obtain directions or correction where necessary. Give the client the sealed orders and explain the first handover, communication obligations and steps needed to implement them.

Deal With Later Change or Non-Compliance

Assess later change separately from enforcement. A further agreement can support an application for replacement parenting orders, but final orders do not become freely variable because the parties originally consented.

Under section 65DAAA of the Family Law Act, contested reconsideration requires consideration of changed circumstances and a finding that reconsideration is in the child’s best interests. The section separately permits reconsideration with all parties’ agreement or consent. Apply the relevant statutory framework to a Western Australian matter.

A later parenting plan can affect enforceability of existing terms under section 64D, subject to the order and statutory conditions. The plan is not itself enforceable as a court order. Explain that effect before the client signs a plan. An informal conversation does not itself change an order, as the Court’s compliance guidance explains.

For alleged non-compliance, identify the precise order and missed obligation. Preserve the handover record, messages and explanation before assessing a contravention application, reasonable excuse and any dispute-resolution requirement or exemption. A property-order set-aside test does not decide whether parenting arrangements can be reconsidered.

Where a child faces immediate danger, call 000. Where violence or removal risk requires urgent court action, seek urgent safety advice or directions instead of waiting for an ordinary consent process. The post-separation abuse guide addresses the related safety and evidence response. Decide the next application from the child’s current circumstances and the operative orders.