The applicant father brought a motion to enforce a final parenting order after the respondent mother breached it, resulting in the father not seeing the children for several months.
Instead of pursuing a contempt motion, the father sought a Section 30 assessment under Rule 1(8) of the Family Law Rules.
The court held that Rule 1(8) is the preferred, child-focused approach to a breach of a parenting order, avoiding the exacerbation of conflict inherent in contempt proceedings.
The court ordered a Section 30 assessment to determine the children's best interests and how to make the parenting schedule operative.
