Recently a Brisbane Federal Circuit Judge (sitting in Toowoomba) decided that an application by a grandmother to spend time with her grandchildren, in circumstances where both the children's parents strenuously opposed the grandmother spending any time with the children, was summarily dismissed. In other words the Judge decided to end the application without allowing it to proceed to a final hearing. The particular facts of the case lead to the decision but the Judge's reasoning was partly that:
- When I weigh up: the fact that the children do not have a relationship with their grandmother; the extent of the parents’ opposition to starting such a relationship; their joint exercise of parental responsibility in not wanting the children to have that relationship; and the potential for ongoing conflict; with: the potential benefit to the children of developing a relationship with the grandmother and extended paternal family; and the benefit to them of having a fuller understanding of their identity, I am satisfied that the former significantly outweighs the latter.
- For these reasons I am not satisfied the grandmother has any reasonable prospect of successfully prosecuting her application and I would summarily dismiss her application.
The decision may read read in its entirety here
