Grandparents to get extra child contact rights
Australian grandparents are being encouraged by the Federal Government to maintain close links with their grandchildren in family breakups, and courts and family relationship centres will be directed to provide additional counselling and information during disputes.
The Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, said that under new changes grandparents would be able to get advice on family law issues and potentially become involved in court proceedings if they believed it would benefit the child’s interests.
He said that “this has been suggested by judges I’ve had discussions with, particularly in cases where relations between parents are dysfunctional. Grandparents can be a real saving grace giving the judges options for residence and to provide some stability in the child’s life”.
The Australian Institute of Family Studies has been commissioned to examine how family law changes introduced in 2006 have affected grandparents and whether grandparents have proved a positive influence in traumatic family breakdowns. Information resources such as DVDs and brochures informing grandparents of their rights are to be distributed by the courts and government agencies.
