Picton & Picton [2025] FedCFamC2F 1882 (18 December 2025)

(a) Commencing 20 December 2025, each Wednesday from 3.30 pm - 7.30 pm and each Saturday from 9 am - 1.30 pm; and

(b) As otherwise agreed between the parents in writing.

1. Changeovers take place at the carpark of City B McDonalds, unless otherwise agreed in writing beforehand.
2. The parents will:

(a) communicate in a respectful manner via the AppClose Parenting App, except in the event of an emergency, when communication will be by telephone;

(b) keep each other informed of their current telephone number, email addresses and residential address and inform the other of any change to any of these details within 48 hours of any change;

(c) as soon as practicable, advise each other of any medical or other emergency involving the children whilst in their respective care including the details of any treating medical practitioner; and

(d) only communicate with each other in relation to issues directly concerning the care, welfare and development of the children.

1. At the expiration of the intervention order made by the City B Magistrates' Court in case no ... wherein the order is for the protection of the Mother and the children, the Mother and the Father be and are hereby restrained by injunction from:

(a) harassing or assaulting the other party;

(b) belittling, rebuking, abusing, insulting or otherwise denigrating each other or any member of the other party's household in the presence or hearing of the children and from allowing the children to remain in the presence of any other party who may be so doing;

1. The Mother and the Father be and are hereby restrained by injunction from:

(a) discussing these proceedings, family law or parenting issues to, with or in the presence or hearing of the children or showing any documents filed in these proceedings or the children and from permitting any other person to do so;

(b) posting information as to the other party, these proceedings or allegations raised herein on any Social Media or allowing any other person to do so;

(c) exposing the children to any family violence;

(d) discussing or otherwise commenting on the choices of the children as to which parent they wish to live with or spend time with or in the presence of the children and from permitting any other person to do so;

(e) passing messages through the children;

(f) involving the children in any form of conflict between the parties or otherwise;

(g) leaving the children alone in the presence of Mr C; and

(h) discussing adult concepts with the children.

1. The parents each continue to attend upon an appropriate therapist, and the following shall apply:

(a) the parties each shall follow all reasonable recommendations of the therapist, including as to frequency of sessions;

(b) the parties each have leave to, and shall provide the therapist with the following:

(i) a copy of these Orders;

(ii) a copy of the affidavits of Ms D filed 17 December 2025 annexing the psychological assessments of the parents; and

(iii) on its being received by the parties, a copy of the Child Impact Report to be prepared in this matter.

(c) the Independent Children's Lawyer be a liberty to liaise with the parties' respective therapists to confirm the parties' engagement and compliance with treatment recommendations.

1. Unless already undertaken and completed, the parents enrol in and complete a Parenting After Separation course and provide a copy a completion certificate to the other parties within 7 days of receipt of same.
2. Unless already undertaken and completed, the parents enrol in and complete a Circle of Security course and provide a copy a completion certificate to the other parties within 7 days of receipt of same.

1. Pursuant to section 62G of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth), the parties and the children, X born in 2024 and Y born in 2022, are directed to attend with a Court Child Expert (practicing under their appointment as a family consultant) nominated by the Court Children's Service (the Court Child Expert) for the purposes of the preparation of a Child Impact Report at the dates and times below, or as otherwise directed by the Court Child Expert.

Part 1 of the event will occur on 13 April 2026 with:

(a) the Applicant to attend at 9.00 am; and

(b) the Respondent to attend at 10.30 am.

Microsoft Teams links will be provided to the parties by the Court Child Expert prior to the event.

Part 2 of the event will occur in person at the Melbourne registry on the morning of 14 April 2026.

Specific details regarding the attendance of the parties and the children on this date will be provided to the parties in Part 1 of the event.

1. Each party will do all things necessary to ensure the children attend upon the Court Child Expert pursuant to Section 62G(3A), unless otherwise determined by the Court Child Expert that Section 62G(3B) applies.
2. The parties and the children shall continue to attend at such times, dates and places as the Court Child Expert may advise.
3. Not later than 4.00 pm on Thursday 25 December 2025 the parties must provide their contact telephone numbers and email addresses to ...@....
4. Pursuant to order 9 herein, the Court Child Expert shall provide a written report to the Court and the report shall deal with the following matters:

(a) any agreement reached between the parties;

(b) identification of key issues requiring resolution;

(c) any views expressed by the children and any matters (such as the children's maturity or level of understanding) that would affect the weight that the court should place on those views;

(d) the impact of the issues/dispute before the Court on the children; and

(e) any other matters that the Court Child Expert considers important to the welfare or best interests of the children.

1. Upon completion, the Child Impact Report shall be provided to the registrar for release to the parties, including by way of order made in Chambers.
2. In preparation of the Child Impact Report, the Court Child Expert is at liberty to inspect and have regard to:

(a) Any material filed by the parties including all Applications and Responses (including Amended Applications and Responses), Affidavits, expert reports (specifically psychiatric or psychological reports) and Notices of Child Abuse, Family Violence or Risk;

(b) Judgments, orders, reports or other material produced by the Court in the current or related proceedings; and

(c) Material produced to the Court under a subpoena, or in response to a s67ZBD or a s67ZBE order.

1. Pursuant to s 68L(2) of the Family Law Act 1975, the children, X born in 2024 and Y born in 2022, be independently represented AND IT IS REQUESTED that Victoria Legal Aid arrange such independent representation and:

(a) forthwith upon appointment by Victoria Legal Aid or otherwise, the Independent Children's Lawyer file a notice of address for service;

(b) within 48 hours of notification of such appointment the solicitors for the respective parents (or, if unrepresented, then the parent themselves) provide to the Independent Children's Lawyer copies of all applications and affidavits upon which that party relies together with any existing orders and copies of any relevant reports;

(c) the Independent Children's Lawyer fulfil the requirements set out in 'Guidelines for the Independent Children's Lawyer' as published on the website of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, and in particular carry out the tasks set out in clauses 5, 6.2, 6.3, 6.5 and 6.7; and

(d) the Independent Children's Lawyer prepare a minute of the orders they will recommend be made as final orders.

1. Leave is granted to the Independent Children's Lawyer to inspect and copy:

(a) Subpoena material produced in this matter;

(b) Material produced in response to the order/s to provide documents or information pursuant to s 67ZBD and/or s 67ZBE Order/s.

1. The matter be and is listed for mention in the Warrnambool Circuit sitting of this Court in the week commencing 16 March 2026.

1. An Independent Children's Lawyer has been appointed because of allegations of physical child abuse.
2. Victoria Legal Aid has been given access to this file via the Commonwealth Courts Portal ("CCP") and is granted leave to view copies of documents available on the CCP.

1. Pursuant to ss.65DA(2) and 62B of the Family Law Act 1975 the particulars of the obligations these orders create and the particulars of the consequences that may follow if a person contravenes these orders are set out in Annexure A and these particulars are included in these orders.

1. If in any proceedings there are allegations of family violence and the provisions of section 102NA of the Family Law Act 1975 apply (see attached Family Violence Information Sheet), any unrepresented party will not be permitted to personally cross-examine the other party/parties.
2. Affected unrepresented parties may apply to the court and then to the Commonwealth Family Violence and Cross-Examination of Parties Scheme ("the Scheme") for representation but any such application must be made at least 12 weeks prior to the final hearing.
3. Further information about the legislation and the Scheme can be found at Part 4 of the attached Family Violence Information Sheet.
4. If s102NA applies and a party becomes unrepresented after trial directions have been made, that party is required to promptly advise the Court.

Note: The form of the order is subject to the entry in the Court's records.

Note: This copy of the Court's Reasons for judgment may be subject to review to remedy minor typographical or grammatical errors (r 10.14(b) Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth)), or to record a variation to the order pursuant to r 10.13 Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Family Law) Rules 2021 (Cth).

Part XIVB of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) makes it an offence, except in very limited circumstances, to publish an account of proceedings that identify persons, associated persons, or witnesses involved in family law proceedings.

IT IS NOTED that publication of this judgment by this Court under a pseudonym has been approved pursuant to subsection 114Q(2) of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth).

1. These are the settled reasons of a judgment delivered ex tempore pursuant to section 69ZL of the Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) ('the Act'). These reasons were delivered orally. They have been corrected from the transcript. Grammatical errors have been corrected, citations and/or passages of authorities and evidence added. And an attempt has been made to make the orally delivered reasons easier to read, but the substance is unchanged.
2. The matter of Picton comes before me to determine, on an interlocutory basis, the spend time arrangements between the applicant father, Mr Picton ('the Father'), and the children, Y and X. The children's mother, Ms Picton ('the Mother'), opposes the Father's application for time to progress to unsupervised and contends that time should remain supervised. These are very short reasons because of the limited time available and the urgency of the hearing.

1. I will now turn to the law to be applied on an interim hearing, and on an interim hearing in the circumstance of a significant change in the law on 6 May 2024. I take some care not to uniformly simply adopt past statements of the law as to an interim hearing.
2. I am satisfied that the law still regards the seminal authority of Goode & Goode [2006] FLC 93-286; (2007) 36 Fam LR 422; [2006] FamCA 1346 ("Goode & Goode") as the manner in which an interim hearing is to be undertaken. However, Goode & Goode, in particular at paragraph 82, went on to define a procedure after considering the matters under section 60CC:

[81] In making interim decisions the Court will still often be faced with conflicting facts, little helpful evidence and disputes between the parents as to what constitutes the best interests of the child. However, the legislative pathway must be followed.

[82] In an interim case that would involve the following:

(a) identifying the competing proposals of the parties;

(b) identifying the issues in dispute in the interim hearing;

(c) identifying any agreed or uncontested relevant facts;

(d) considering the matters in s 60CC that are relevant and, if possible, making findings about them (in interim proceedings there may be little uncontested evidence to enable more than a limited consideration of these matters to take place);

1. That decision required matters to be taken into account that are no longer the law. However, I am satisfied that Goode & Goode at paragraphs 81 and 82(a) through to (d) remains the settled law, but with reference to section 60CC of the Act as those provisions now are.

1. I am satisfied the time should move to unsupervised time. I do not make any judgment about whether or not the Mother should or should not have pressed for supervision on this interim order.
2. I am satisfied that the time should commence pursuant to the Father's orders sought, save that rather than each Saturday at 10.00 am until 2.00 pm, it should be the time the Mother presses, that is from 9.00 am until 1.30 pm.
3. The time of the Wednesday evening should be as the Father presses, from 3.30 pm to 7.30 pm. It is very much to the credit of the Mother that she proposes to work out that time as agreed, but I am not satisfied that the stress of trying to work out that time at an agreed time for it to happen at all will assist either the Mother, the children or the Father in all the circumstances.
4. I am not satisfied there should be an automatic move to the overnight time that the Father seeks. That is largely because of the ages of the children. It may be that Y is developmentally of an age where overnight time is appropriate. X is still only a toddler, and certainly there is no doubt that a younger child can move to overnight time earlier than might otherwise be the case where there is an older sibling that she can tag along with, and I would be assisted in this high conflict case by the observations of a Family Report.
5. I am satisfied that the existing therapists of the parties are sufficient in the circumstances, including the resources available of clinical psychologists in City B. I am not satisfied that the existing therapy should be interrupted to change over to another therapist. However, these orders are only orders until further order.
6. I am satisfied that the risk to the children is ameliorated by the care that the Mother has taken as to her mental and physical health circumstances. I am satisfied that the risk to the children's safety from the Father is ameliorated from the circumstances of his completion of courses, his positive engagement with a therapist, and his indication that he intends to continue consulting the therapist. The discipline involved in turning up for work early in the morning, day in and day out as an apprentice, as the Father does, shows a significant aspect of his personality. And in addition, the detailed observations showing a competent and caring parent in the supervised sessions at E Contact Service.
7. I also take into account that the Father has cooperated with the burdens of supervision and, in fact, embraced those burdens for the purpose of seeing his children, and that is significant. A practical reality of life is that many people are so affronted by being asked to undertake supervised time that they begrudgingly undertake it, as opposed to this case, where it is clear that the Father has embraced it.
8. For all of those reasons, and taking into account section 60CC of the Act, I am satisfied that the orders that the Father seeks in regard to unsupervised time do promote the safety of the children, including protecting the Father's relationship with the children. I am satisfied that there is a real benefit to the children of having a relationship with both parents, and I am satisfied as to both parents' parenting capacity.
9. I do note the "you're hurting me, you're hurting my sister" incident that is referred to in the Mother's outline of case and detailed in the E Contact Service report as follows:

Back in the CCS room, [Mr Picton] was sitting on the floor tickling [X] playfully. They both appeared to be having fun during this interaction, with [X] giggling loudly. [Y] watched the interaction between [Mr Picton] and [X] for a moment before saying, 'Dad. You're hurting my sister.' [Mr Picton] reassured [Y] that he wasn't hurting [X] and told her they were just having fun together.

[Y] then sat in [Mr Picton]'s lap and after a moment said, 'You're hurting me.' [Mr Picton] immediately withdrew his hands away from [Y]'s body. [Y] then stood up and walked away, leaving [Mr Picton] with a very confused and hurt expression on his face. [Mr Picton] sat looking down at the ground for a few seconds as he processed what had just occurred. [Mr Picton] then looked up at the Team Leader and said he wanted to end the visit.

1. I do take into account that the Father showed some emotional lability in the stressful event of supervised time and that allegation being made, but I am quite satisfied that the child was not hurt or harmed in any way and that there was, in the presence of the supervisor who was observing exactly what was happening, no concern whatsoever. And for those reasons, time should move to unsupervised.
2. In terms of the time that the Father proposes and the small difference between the parties, I am not satisfied that the time should commence this Christmas in the circumstances of a three-year-old and a toddler. I acknowledge the importance of the children being available on Christmas Day, but I am not satisfied that this family is yet at a point where I can move to sharing of Christmas Day, notwithstanding everyone lives in City B.
3. Those are my reasons.

I certify that the preceding seventeen (17) numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the ex tempore Reasons for Judgment of Judge O'Shannessy.