Section 64DFamily Law Act 1975 (Cth)

Parenting orders subject to later parenting plans

(1) Subject to subsection (2), a parenting order in relation to a child is taken to include a provision that the order is subject to a parenting plan that is:

(a) entered into subsequently by the child’s parents; and

(b) agreed to, in writing, by any other person (other than the child) to whom the parenting order applies.

(2) The court may, in exceptional circumstances, include in a parenting order a provision that the parenting order, or a specified provision of the parenting order, may only be varied by a subsequent order of the court (and not by a parenting plan).

(3) Without limiting subsection (2), exceptional circumstances for the purposes of that subsection include the following:

(a) circumstances that give rise to a need to protect the child from physical or psychological harm from being subjected to, or exposed to, abuse, neglect or family violence;

(b) the existence of substantial evidence that one of the child’s parents is likely to seek to use coercion or duress to gain the agreement of the other parent to a parenting plan.

Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation at 26 May 2026. For the latest information on Australian Government law please go to https://www.legislation.gov.au. Verify the current text against the official source before relying on it.

Related sections

Research how courts apply s 64D

BriefBridge searches Australian caselaw by meaning — every answer cited to the paragraph.

Try BriefBridge free