Custody abductions and filicides-suicides are not every day occurrences and typically become ‘media events’. Through an analysis of newspaper representations of two custody abductions and one filicide-suicide, this article examines the role played by fathers’ rights discourse in the construction of the separated father in...

If a temporary migrant has a baby with an Australian, the baby is a citizen. But if the couple splits up, the foreign parent doesn't have the right to stay in Australia and stay close to their child. It's often up to the Immigration Minister...

The Family Court is one of the most controversial institutions in Australia. It’s also one of the least scrutinised. In a number of Family Court cases, where claims of child sexual abuse have been made against a father, the court has switched care from the...

In a well-coordinated and well-resourced child protection system, health staff, child protection workers and forensic specialists should already be collaborating to share information about children and families at risk of harm. These teams should be responding to the warnings some parents give prior to committing...

The Abbott government’s tough stance on border protection doesn’t only apply to asylum seekers arriving by boat

In some jurisdictions of Australia, the rate of Indigenous children in foster, kinship and residential care on any one night has reached almost one in ten. This rate is almost ten times higher than non-Aboriginal children and has steadily increased over the past decade. Contrast...

The tragic death of four-year old Chloe Valentine in South Australia has raised concerns that the state’s child protection system is in crisis. Following a history of abuse and neglect, Chloe’s mother and her partner repeatedly put Chloe on a 50-kilogram motorbike and filmed her...

This presentation is about a study exploring child protection practitioner decision-making about the placement of children in out-of-home care. A brief measure, 'the child placement questionnaire' was developed. Following evaluation by experts in child protection research, policy and practice, it was piloted with 53 child...

The Australian government recently announced a parliamentary inquiry to investigate whether a legal presumption of joint residence should become part of Australian family law - that is, if parents separate and cannot agree on arrangements for their children, the starting point should be that children...