By Robert Glade-Wright -
Key decisions
- Wendland [2017] FamCAFC 244
- Anson & Meek [2017] FamCAFC 257
- Boyle & Zahur and Anor (No. 2) [2017] FamCAFC 263
- Simic & Norton [2017] FamCA 1007
Children
Mother allowed to relocate to wherever she was posted in her employment with the Australian Defence Force
In Wendland [2017] FamCAFC 244 (21 November 2017) the Full Court (Ainslie-Wallace, Ryan & Aldridge JJ) dismissed the father’s appeal against Judge Vasta’s order that permitted the mother (who had worked for the Australian Defence Force for 18 years since she was 20) to relocate their child (4) to wherever she was posted. The child lived with her in Town H in Queensland, spending time with the father each week and ‘it was not known if, when or where the mother might be posted’. The father argued that ‘until the location of any posting was known informed decisions could not be made as to … the child’s best interests’ (at [5]). By the time of the appeal, however, the mother had been posted to another State.
‘[During the relationship] [t]he child was placed in on-base day care where the mother was working and the paternal grandmother also took care of the child. The father continued to work full time.’ (at [10])
