Parental Responsibility Case Study

Parental responsibility has changed over the centuries as in the 20th century children had few rights. Parents had the rights over their children and the children had the responsibilities. But over time the legal system has been reformed to recognise the rights of children. There has been an increase in understanding the need to protect children from harm and enforce duties on parents when parents fail to exercise their responsibilities. Over time there has been two huge reforms that happen to Family Law Act which occurred in 1995 and 2006 and there was a further amendment to the FLA in 2011. In 1995 the Family Law Reform Act 1995 (Cth) was passed which sought to reform the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) in order to reflect the values and child orientated

It reflects the legal orientation on parental responsibilities. It is an expectation that both parents will be involved in the important decisions regarding the child. Also parental responsibilities extend to a consideration of the primary and additional factors discussed earlier when deciding what is in child’s best interest. In 2011 the Family Law Legislation (Family Violence and other Measures) Act 2011 (Cth) was passed. This act protects the safety of children in parenting matters and changed the definitions of ‘abuse’ and ‘family violence’ to better capture harmful behaviour. This act also strengthened advisers’ obligations by requiring family consultants, family counsellors, family dispute resolution practitioners and legal practitioners to prioritise the safety of children, ensure the courts have better access to evidence of abuse and family violence by improving reporting requirements, and make it easier for State and Territory child protection authorities to participate in family law proceedings where appropriate. Parenting Orders are covered in the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth). There are four parts of the parenting