Absent father has application dismissed

Judge Baumann in the case of Waugh & Bannon FCCA 893 [2014] dismissed a father’s application for time to be spent with his daughter X aged 8. X had spent no time with her father before the proceedings.  It was held that x “really does not know of his existence and identity” The mother is “an indigenous woman who identifies herself as Torres Strait Islander”. The father initially disputed he was the father.  He had applied for parenting order in 2011 after the Child Support Agency reduced his benefits when a positive DNA result found him to be the biological father of X.  There had been some supervised time under interim orders.  Judge Baumann at [41] accepted the forensic psychologist’s evidence that the mother’s family “adopts the practices of the Torres Strait Island culture even though the child lives in suburban Brisbane.” The court also accepted the Family consultant’s opinion that “if an order is made that is `not accepted emotionally’ by the mother and her family it could undermine the ‘collective family structure’ that supports and has nurtured X and which is her reality’