Coronavirus: Kids a no-go as access visits vetoed

Contact centres have suspended face-to-face services to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Relationships Australia NSW chief executive Elisabeth Shaw said her organisation had suspended face-to-face services from this week.

Parents allowed only supervised visits with their children face the prospect of months without seeing them, as many contact centres suspend face-to-face services to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Relationships Australia NSW chief executive Elisabeth Shaw said her organisation had suspended face-to-face services from this week, but was scrambling to find new ways to enable parents to see their children.

“It’s absolutely dreadful,” she said. “It’s bad enough even in ordinary times; you can already feel angry or sad you’re in this position.

“This time it’s not your partner who is holding back, it is the ­situation.”

She said services were trying to find a way forward. One option was video contact for parents with older children. “A lot of things you can move online but there are some things you really feel stuck,” Ms Shaw said.

It is understood many centres in other states are continuing their services in a more restricted way to enable greater social distancing, but this is under review.

Family lawyers say they have been inundated with calls from clients facing dilemmas posed by the pandemic. Many parents are reluctant to hand their children to former partners who have been ­required to self-isolate, but are worried about being in breach of court orders.

It is understood the courts are working on providing guidance to families in relation to parenting orders, given the current situation.

The issues come as the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court have shifted their work to ­telephone hearings or video­­conferencing wherever possible, giving priority to the most urgent cases.

Family law partner Carly ­Middle­ton, from Barkus Doolan, said this was placing many clients whose disputes were perceived to be less urgent in a very difficult position.

Some mothers, faced with the stress of home schooling children and making ends meet, were now having to beg their former partners for money, with no foreseeable resolution to their financial disputes.

Others who had been trying to get their partners to move out were now in lockdown with them, she said.

“The uncertainty, the stress, it’s a tragedy for everyone,” she said.

The chair of the Law Council of Australia’s family law section, Paul Doolan, said the courts needed more resources to deal with the unprecedented issues they were facing.

“This has exacerbated what was already a disastrously underfunded sector,” he said.

“I think all families have got to be flexible and co-operative.

“It’s difficult for separated parents at the best of times, and these are not the best of times.”

Mr Doolan said the courts and lawyers were also grappling with issues such as a requirement to serve documents on the opposing side in person, and to swear documents in the presence of a lawyer.

Everyone was trying to make sensible arrangements, he said.