What is parental responsibility?
Parents of children under the age of 18 have joint parental responsibility for their children unless otherwise ordered. This means there is a presumption that every parent has “all the duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which by law parents have in relation to their children” regardless of whether the parents are living together or separately and apart.
Parental responsibility is independent of the respective amount of time that a child spends with each parent.
The Family Law Act 1975 provides that when determining what parenting orders to make the court must have the best interests of the child, not the parents, as its paramount consideration.
