In Brief — Impor­tance of a pre-exist­ing rela­tion­ship and the age of the child 

The deci­sion of a court about grand­par­ents and extend­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers spend­ing reg­u­lar time with the chil­dren after sep­a­ra­tion or divorce is like­ly to be influ­enced by the age of the chil­dren and by whether or not a rela­tion­ship already exists with the children.


Impor­tance of the rights of children

The law is for­mu­lat­ed around the rights of chil­dren. Changes to the Fam­i­ly Law Act in 2006 made it clear that chil­dren have a right to spend time and com­mu­ni­cate on a reg­u­lar basis with any per­son who is sig­nif­i­cant to their care, wel­fare and devel­op­ment, such as grand­par­ents and oth­er rel­a­tives. This is an impor­tant right, because part of the child’s iden­ti­ty stems from know­ing their grand­par­ents and extend­ed family.

Both grand­par­ents and par­ents should try not to den­i­grate oth­er mem­bers of the children’s fam­i­ly in front of the chil­dren and should be as encour­ag­ing as pos­si­ble for chil­dren to spend time with their grand­par­ents and extend­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers on both sides of the family.

Reach­ing an agree­ment with the parents

The best way for grand­par­ents or oth­er fam­i­ly mem­bers to ensure that they con­tin­ue to have a rela­tion­ship with a child is for the grand­par­ent or oth­er fam­i­ly mem­ber to speak direct­ly to both par­ents to dis­cuss arrange­ments. This is not always easy when there is a dif­fi­cult mar­riage break­down, but both grand­par­ents and par­ents need to keep in mind that it is the inter­ests of the chil­dren which are most important.

Grand­par­ents and extend­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers have access to Fam­i­ly Rela­tion­ship Cen­tres and alter­na­tive dis­pute res­o­lu­tion cen­tres to assist them in nego­ti­at­ing with par­ents to allow them to have reg­u­lar, unin­ter­rupt­ed vis­its with the children.

Inabil­i­ty to reach an agree­ment with the parents

If grand­par­ents or extend­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers can­not come to an arrange­ment with the par­ents, a Sec­tion 60I Cer­tifi­cate can be issued and they are then able to make an appli­ca­tion to either the Fed­er­al Mag­is­trates Court or Fam­i­ly Court to have orders made for them to see the children.

In most cir­cum­stances, the amount of time that grand­par­ents and extend­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers will spend with the chil­dren is not the same as it is for par­ents. How­ev­er, a court will be mind­ful of the impor­tance of grand­par­ents and extend­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers to chil­dren in terms of their iden­ti­ty and their lat­er rela­tion­ships with their fam­i­ly, includ­ing grand­par­ents, aunts, uncles, cousins and oth­er per­sons who have been impor­tant in their lives.

Fac­tors like­ly to influ­ence the court

The like­li­hood of a court grant­i­ng grand­par­ents or extend­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers the abil­i­ty to spend time with chil­dren after the fam­i­ly has sep­a­rat­ed depends part­ly on the children’s age and part­ly on the pres­ence or absence of a pre-exist­ing rela­tion­ship with the children.

In the case of an infant, the court is like­ly to take the view that it is impor­tant for the child to have the oppor­tu­ni­ty to devel­op a rela­tion­ship with mem­bers of the extend­ed fam­i­ly and to make orders accordingly.

How­ev­er, if a child is old­er and has nev­er had a rela­tion­ship with grand­par­ents or extend­ed fam­i­ly mem­bers, the court is less like­ly to make orders for the child to spend time with them.

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion please contact:

If you would like to repub­lish this arti­cle, it is gen­er­al­ly approved, but pri­or to doing so please con­tact the Mar­ket­ing team at marketing@​swaab.​com.​au. This arti­cle is not legal advice and the views and com­ments are of a gen­er­al nature only. This arti­cle is not to be relied upon in sub­sti­tu­tion for detailed legal advice.

Publications

No will, no direc­tion: The estate of Liam Payne and under­stand­ing law of intestacy

When Liam Payne sang ​“nobody can drag me down” we did­n’t think he was talk­ing about his aver­sion to sit­ting…

Beware Retail Lease Dis­close Statements

Before a retail lease is entered into, the Retail Leas­es Act 1994 (NSW) (the RL Act) requires a land­lord to give a signed Lessor’s…

Devel­op­ers beware the statu­to­ry non del­e­gable’ duty of care under the Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020

The Design and Build­ing Prac­ti­tion­ers Act 2020 (DBP Act) came into effect in NSW in June 2020. Since its intro­duc­tion the courts…

In the News

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, Pro­posed non-com­pete ban could back­fire on work­ers, firm warns”, pub­lished in Lawyers Week­ly on 20 May 2025

Michael Byrnes is quot­ed in the arti­cle, ​“Pro­posed non-com­pete ban could back­fire on work­ers, firm warns”, pub­lished in Lawyers Week­ly…

Press Release | Swaab’s James Skel­ton Appoint­ed Chair of Glob­al Emerg­ing Lead­ers Advi­so­ry Board at Mer­i­tas AGM in Mex­i­co City

In this piv­otal lead­er­ship role, James will guide ini­tia­tives to strength­en rela­tion­ships among Emerg­ing Lead­ers across Mer­i­tas’ 175 glob­al mem­ber…

Press Release | New Part­ner Appoint­ment — Mark Glynn

With over two decades in the indus­try, Mark is a recog­nised front-end con­struc­tion lawyer spe­cial­ist with­in the build­ing and con­struc­tion indus­try. Mark…

Sign up for our Newsletter

*Mandatory information