Adele Horin
March 31, 2007
Brisbane Times
NINE months after landmark changes to the Family Law Act came into effect, more fathers are applying for shared care of their children, experts say, and more fathers are becoming the primary carer.
But as-yet-unreleased research indicates shared care is an arrangement that may not last long. The data shows many couples revert over time to one parent being the main carer.
Bruce Smythe, of the Australian National University, who has tracked post-separation care arrangements over three years since 2003, said: "While there may be a movement to shared care, with more couples embarking on it, it is also the arrangement that is most likely to change over time. It is much less stable than weekly or fortnightly contact. Shared care is one of the most logistically challenging arrangements because it involves children moving between two households on equal time basis."
Figures from the Child Support Agency released this week showed fathers were the primary carers in 21 per cent of new cases registered in the first half of 2006. This compared with 18 per cent of new cases in 2002. Almost three-quarters of new male primary carers had sole care of the children, and the rest had the children for at least 220 nights a year.
As well, the proportion of all non-custodial parents (mostly fathers) who care for children more than 30 per cent of nights a year has more than doubled since 1999 to 9.5 per cent.
Family lawyers said the figures probably understated the changes because they do not include cases registered after the new family law took effect last July. The new law introduces a presumption of shared parental responsibility, leading to - where practical - equal time or "substantial and significant" time with the children for both parents.
Justin Dowd, a family law specialist with the firm Watts McCray, said there had been a significant rise in approaches by fathers who wanted equal time, more time or more flexible arrangements than the traditional fortnightly weekend access. "There's certainly a trend in our practice of fathers having greater expectations of spending more time with their children," he said. "We often see men who've been absent fathers during the relationship, but at the end - particularly if it was not their decision to end it - they realise what they've missed out on and become keen to be involved."
Duncan Holmes, a partner in the firm Slade Manwaring, said more fathers were getting extra time with their children, usually a little over 110 nights per year. That, "by coincidence, then brings them into a Child Support Agency category … which qualifies for a reduction in their child support liability".
A family lawyer who did not want to be named said that while many fathers genuinely wanted more time, some "high-flying businessmen" were using the new legal presumption of 50-50 care as a bargaining chip to pressure former wives into accepting inferior financial settlements. "The wives are living in fear the children will be wrenched from them," he said, "and so they do a deal."
Mark Beckman, 46 has been the primary carer of his daughters, Jessica, 17, and Corinne, 11, since his former wife left six years ago. She sees them every second weekend and half the school holidays. Mr Beckman, an administration officer, said learning to cook had been the hardest part of becoming the primary carer. "I'd had a lot to do with the kids before the break-up, but the learning curve was a pretty steep incline," he said.
He is unfazed by the "funny looks" he attracts when he takes the girls to buy underwear, and believes the bond with his daughters compensates for the sacrifice he has made to his career.