Australian parents going to war - and court - over their children’s Covid jabs

Warring Australian parents are calling in the lawyers, as the debate over whether to vaccinate their children boils over.

Warring parents are calling in the lawyers, as the debate over whether to vaccinate their children boils over.

Family legal experts say Covid vaccination is becoming the new battleground in family law matters, as the country pushes ahead with the jab rollout for 5-11-year-olds.

Those who have sole parental responsibility can give a child the Covid-19 vaccine without the other parents’ approval, but where exes have shared parenting responsibility they must both approve.

If parents cannot agree they must attend mediation first to try to reach agreement.

Cheryl Duffy from The Divorce Centre said she expects a surge in child vaccine disputes. Picture: Supplied

Cheryl Duffy, a mediator at The Divorce Centre, said child vaccinations were “creating another co-parenting conflict that was not there pre-Covid”.

“Lawyers and mediators have had more cases raised with Covid vaccination as a new conflict scenario in shared parenting and expect to see cases rise throughout 2022,” she said.

“(Some) people just don’t want their children to have it because of the mild symptoms, but then there are the parents that really want it to protect them,” she said.

Australian Family Lawyers accredited specialist in family law Justin Dowd said the firm had, since the start of the pandemic, seen an estimated 25-30 per cent increase in cases where Covid had become a driving factor in custody issues.

Prior to Christmas, Mr Dowd dealt with a case where a Sydney judge ordered an unvaccinated child be allowed to travel.

Child vaccinations are a hot topic in households across Australia. Picture: Brendan Radke

“The child was being required to travel in circumstances where the child was then too young to be vaccinated,” he said. “In the end the judge ordered that the travel occur notwithstanding the risks that are involved.”

More recently, Mr Dowd dealt with a case involving a Sydney mother not allowing the father to take the children because his parents had Covid.

“They reached an agreement so it didn’t proceed to a hearing,” Mr Dowd said.

“The agreement was that the child would not come into contact with the grandparents until the seven-day isolation period had ended.”

His overall advice to parents was to see the child’s regular GP.

If the child did not have a regular doctor, parents needed to agree on one, he said.

“It’s a medical issue, it’s a medical question, so leave the courts out of it as far as possible,” Mr Dowd advised.

Relationships Australia NSW CEO Elisabeth Shaw.

Relationships Australia NSW CEO and clinical psychologist Elisabeth Shaw said she was seeing both current and former partners struggling with the issue of child vaccination.

“It may be one side of the family is vaccinated and the other isn’t,” she said.

“For couples who are together this is a live issue between parents but also between parents and extended family members, such as grandparents or siblings.

“Then this plays out between the couples; this is a dispute that goes public very fast, whereas they could sweep other issues underneath the rug”.