During previous Queensland lockdowns, parents and children have been permitted to travel between households to facilitate time arrangements. The Restrictions for Locked Down Areas (South-East Queensland) Direction (No. 2) came into effect on 1 August 2021 and no longer provides for some parenting arrangements to be facilitated.
The current Health Direction provides that a person may leave their principal place of residence in a locked down area "to continue an existing court-ordered or court-directed arrangement for access to, and contact between, parents and children and siblings."
A court-ordered or court-directed arrangement can include the following:
- Consent Orders made by the Court; and
- Orders made regarding the time arrangements for children during Court proceedings.
If any of the below are in place, a parent must not enter a locked down area to spend time with children and those children are to remain at the premises that there were residing at on 1 August 2021:
- A Verbal Agreement;
- A Parenting Plan;
- Email or SMS between parenting outlining agreed time.
If you are concerned that a child is at risk of harm with a parent during the lockdown period, please contact our Family Law Team and we can discuss with you the options available to you. The Family Court of Australia and Federal Circuit court of Australia have a specialised COVID-19 list to deal exclusively with urgent matters arising as a result of COVID-19.