Recovery & Relocation

Family Law

When a parenting order is made by the court, each parent or person that is affected by the order must comply with the order.

If the parenting orders provide that your child normally lives with you and their other parent has your child and is refusing to return them to you can apply for a recovery order.

If you do not know where your child is, you can also apply for orders to help you to find them. These are called a Commonwealth information order. A Commonwealth information order is a location order which requires the Secretary of a Government department to provide information to the Court about the location of a child.

A recovery order

A recovery order is an order of the Court which can require a child to be returned to a parent of the child or a person who has a parenting order which states the child is to live with, spend time with, or communicate with, that person, or a person who has parental responsibility for the child.

What is important to note is that you do not have to have orders that provide for time with a child to seek a recovery order. A person concerned with the care, welfare, and development, of the child can apply for a recovery order. So if you are a grandparent with whom the child lives or spends time with, you can apply for a recovery order.

There are different processes for applying for a recovery order, depending on whether or not you have a current parenting order or a parenting case pending in the Court.

The court implements a recovery order authorising or directing another person or persons to find, recover, and deliver, a child. Normally, this will be the Australian Federal Police (AFP). You will need to complete the Recovery Order Family Law Information Sheet found in the AFP Family Law Kit.

If your child is not found, you may ask the Court to issue a location order, Commonwealth information order, and/or publication order. A location order is an order of the Court which requires a person to give to the Court, information they have, or which they obtain, about a child.

In some cases, a publication order is made by the court. This is an order of the Court which partially lifts publishing restrictions in a particular family law case, to allow media outlets to publicise certain details of a case, to help to find a missing child. This is usually only used as a last resort.

Relocation

Moving with your child to another town, state or country is known as relocation. If moving is going to impact on the time that your child lives with, or spends with, a parent or another significant person in their lives, a court may not give permission for the move to take place. If your child primarily lives with you and you want to relocate, you should first try to talk to the other parent.

A relocation will usually mean that the existing parenting arrangements are no longer practicable. The distance and time spent travelling could mean that mid-week contact is just not possible. You can reach agreement with the other parent about your relocation. However, you must fully expect to provide make up time such as during the school holidays and the like.

If you cannot agree about the relocation, you can ask the Court to make parenting orders. including:

If you relocate with your child without the consent of the other parent, and without a court order allowing you to relocate, a court may require you to return with the child until the case has reached an outcome. If there is a court order in place, and the Court order cannot be followed, you will be contravening (breaching) the order. Contravening an order can have serious consequences for you.

My child is about to be taken out of Australia for good

If there is a possibility or threat that a child may be removed from Australia, the Court can make orders which restrain the removal of the child from Australia. The court can also request that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) place the child’s name on the Family Law Watchlist, and request that the AFP assist in the implementation of the orders.

The Hague Convention

If your child was taken from their home country without your permission and without the authorisation of a court, you may be able to get assistance under the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction (Hague Convention).

The Hague Convention is the main international agreement that covers international parental child abduction. It provides a process for a parent to seek to have their child returned to their home country. The Hague Convention sets up a central authority in each signature country to deal with applications for the return of children taken to or from each country. The Australian Government Attorney-General’s Department is the central authority for Australia.

My child has been taken from Australia

If a child that you have parental responsibility for, has left Australia without your permission, you should contact the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department on 1800 100 480.

I have brought my child to Australia

If you have brought your child to Australia from another country, and the child’s other parent alleges that you did so without their permission, or an order of a court in that country, court proceedings may be started against you in Australia for your child to be returned to the other country.