Grella v Jamieson

This was an appeal from a Family Court of Australia trial judge’s decision denying the mother permission to relocate to Europe with the child. The child lived with the mother and spent some time with the father. There was no proposal to change that arrangement. The father had a history of substance abuse and family violence, and had moved gradually from supervised time with the child to limited unsupervised time. The father had also re-partnered and had another child with his current partner. The mother’s main argument at appeal was that the trial judge had over-emphasised the benefit of the child having a meaningful relationship with both parents and paid insufficient attention to other s 60CC factors. The Full Court found no appellable error in the trial judge’s reasoning.