Upon separation for a year and if there is a child, there has to be a care plan which covers health, education, visits, and everything in between. Australia’s Shared Parental Responsibility (child custody) laws covers this aspect after divorce.

1. The State of Shared Parental
Responsibility and Child
Custody in Australia
Brisbane | Gold Coast | Sunshine Coast | Queensland, Australia, T 61 7 3220 1299, F 61 7 3220 1277, www.hhfamilylaw.com.au

2. The State of Shared Parental
Responsibility
And Child Custody in Australia
Marriage is a ceremony that you do in front of other witnesses to solemnize and announce your
commitment to each other - that is the purpose of marriage everywhere in the world. Marriages, legally
contracted in one place, would be inoperative for all legal purposes in another.
Upon separation for a year and if there is a child, there has to be a care plan which covers health,
education, visits, and everything in between depends on the agreement between the two parties. This
empowers them to have informed decisions about their and their children's future.
Most important before anything else is the effective communication of both parties with their child/ren.
They need to know something about the separation otherwise they will often blame themselves. They
need to be informed, but not overwhelmed.
This also means choosing a well-rounded divorce lawyer who can advise honestly - someone you can
trust, and who is dedicated to the effective child custody approach to be proceeded.
Shared Parental Responsibility: Laying the truth in Child Custody
Australia’s Shared Parental Responsibility (child custody) laws introduced in 2006 is one major regulation
surrounding the case upon divorce and separation. Shared parenting under child custody laws however,
has been a deceptive campaign and often misinterpreted by many. Note however that there is nothing
mandatory about Shared Parental Responsibility legislation.
The Family Court's Shared Parental Responsibility Outcomes report underscores the fact that there is
nothing mandatory about these laws, where the majority of court outcomes since the introduction of
these laws still result in the child residing almost exclusively with the mother.
"Shared parenting reduces Child Support commitments, which is why many fathers seek Shared Parenting
arrangements." This claim underlie an element of gender arrogance in suggesting that only mothers can
love their children enough to want to spend time with them.
Shared Parenting involves a duplication of investments on both parties, e.g. new bedroom/s, new
wardrobe of clothing, food, computers, furniture, toys and many other expenses, involving substantial
capital costs.
Nonetheless, the allegation is often made and is completely erroneous because Shared Parenting
arrangements are typically more expensive for the average father than a non-custodial parenting
arrangement. Shared Parenting also shifts a greater proportion of the day to day costs to the fathers.
Many fathers in Shared Parenting arrangements have to reduce their overall working hours to
accommodate their Shared Parenting arrangement, thus reducing their income.
The overall impact is that Shared Parenting arrangements provide for greater financial investment in the
support of their children by fathers, as well as greater emotional, psychological and other forms of
support.
Brisbane | Gold Coast | Sunshine Coast | Queensland, Australia, T 61 7 3220 1299, F 61 7 3220 1277, www.hhfamilylaw.com.au

3. On the other hand, single mothers do receive less direct financial support from the respective fathers with
Shared Parenting arrangements, which may also go some way in explaining the worldwide campaigns by
single mothers' groups against Shared Parenting initiatives.
In fact it has been argued that these laws have to a great extent "taken the heat out" of the most vexed
issue in separation, namely that of a child's residence, precisely because of the more balanced and child-
centric approach to such determinations.
To the parents involved, Shared Parenting arrangements are no different to two-day per-fortnight
arrangements in terms of the mechanics of contact and change-overs. Shared Parenting does not in any
way increase the time that separated parents need to spend with each other, nor need it involve any
physical or proximate contact between the parents. Children having Shared Parenting arrangements
typically change-over their residence twice a fortnight making the frequency of change-overs identical in
both cases.
According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies evaluation of the 2006 Family Law Reforms, a large
scale government initiated study into the performance of these reforms, the study found that there was
no link between the 2006 Shared Parenting amendments and any increased risk of domestic violence or
assault against women and children. Children in Shared Parental arrangements have the lowest recorded
incidence of Child Abuse in Australia, even lower than that of intact families.
Brisbane | Gold Coast | Sunshine Coast | Queensland, Australia, T 61 7 3220 1299, F 61 7 3220 1277, www.hhfamilylaw.com.au