SAFETY CONCERNS AND FAMILY VIOLENCE

Best Interests of the Child

Guardianship and Decision-Making

Parenting Orders Explained

Resolving Parenting Disputes

Relocation Disputes

The Procedural Roadmap

If you are looking for a family lawyer in Auckland mothers and fathers turn to in an emergency, safety is the priority in every family law matter we handle. Under the Care of Children Act 2004, the Family Court has specific powers to protect children and parents from family violence, and separate emergency options exist outside of a standard parenting dispute. This guide expands on our main article on child custody in New Zealand and explains the protections available to you and your family.

If you or your children are in immediate danger, call Police on 111. If you need urgent legal help, our urgent family lawyer service can assess emergency options straight away, and our separate guide to protection orders in New Zealand covers that process in full.

This page is part of a wider series on New Zealand family law. Related topics are covered in the following guides:

• Best Interests of the Child
• Guardianship and Decision-Making
• Parenting Orders Explained
• Resolving Parenting Disputes
• Relocation Disputes
• The Procedural Roadmap

FAMILY VIOLENCE AND THE CARE OF CHILDREN ACT

Section 5 of the Care of Children Act 2004 makes protecting a child from all forms of violence one of the principles underlying every decision about their best interests, and section 5A requires the court to take any family violence into account when making decisions about day-to-day care, contact, or guardianship. Safety is treated as a threshold issue, not simply one factor to be weighed against others.

Family violence, as defined under the Family Violence Act 2018, is broader than physical harm alone. It includes sexual and psychological abuse, financial or economic abuse, and patterns of coercive or controlling behaviour. Children who witness violence between parents, even if it is not directed at them, are also recognised as affected by it, which is why safety concerns can influence parenting arrangements even where a child has not personally been harmed.

POLICE SAFETY ORDERS

Where Police believe family violence has occurred, or is likely to occur, they can issue a Police Safety Order on the spot, without needing the consent of the person the order is made against. This requires that person to leave the address and stay away from the protected person, and any children living with them, for up to ten days. It does not require proof to a criminal standard, only a genuine belief that this protection is necessary.

A Police Safety Order can include conditions relating to a child, such as preventing contact for its duration, but it is a short-term protective bridge rather than a lasting solution. Families in this situation generally need to follow up with a Protection Order application, and often a review of any existing parenting arrangements, once the immediate risk has been addressed.

PROTECTION ORDERS

Longer-term protection is available through a Protection Order made by the Family Court under the Family Violence Act 2018. A Protection Order imposes non-violence and non-contact conditions on the person it is made against, and can name and cover any children living with the protected person, not just the applicant. Where the risk is serious, an order can be made urgently, without the other party being notified beforehand.

A Protection Order can significantly affect existing or future parenting orders, for example by requiring contact to be supervised or handovers to occur through a third party rather than directly between parents. The Family Court takes any Protection Order into account when deciding parenting arrangements, and the two processes are often managed together. Our separate guide to protection orders in New Zealand explains who can apply, what conditions can be included, and how long an order lasts.

Breaching a Protection Order is a criminal offence, not simply a civil matter, and Police can act on a breach independently of any Family Court proceeding. This means a Protection Order carries real weight as a practical safety tool, rather than existing only on paper, and it is generally treated seriously by both Police and the courts when arrangements involving children are being decided.

URGENT AND WITHOUT NOTICE APPLICATIONS

Where there is a genuine and immediate risk, both Protection Order applications and parenting or guardianship applications can be made without notifying the other party in advance, known as a without notice application. This means the other person will not know about the application, or have a chance to respond, until after a judge has already made an interim decision. Family Dispute Resolution is not required in these circumstances, since it would be inappropriate to expect a family to mediate through a genuine safety emergency.

If you are facing an emergency, do not wait to see whether the situation improves on its own. Call Police on 111 if you or your children are in immediate danger, and contact a lawyer as soon as it is safe to do so. Our urgent family lawyer service is built specifically around these time-critical situations, where a delay of even a day or two can make a real difference to the protection available to your family.

SAFE PARENTING ARRANGEMENTS

A history of family violence does not automatically end a child’s relationship with the other parent. Because section 5 also recognises the value of an ongoing relationship with both parents, the Family Court usually looks for ways to balance that relationship against genuine safety needs, rather than removing contact entirely wherever it can be made safe. Common tools include supervised contact through a professional supervisor or approved family member, and structured handover arrangements at a neutral location, such as a police station or a third party’s home, to reduce the risk of direct contact between the parents.

These arrangements are usually built into a parenting order as specific protective conditions, rather than left informal, so that both parents know exactly what is required and any breach can be enforced. In some situations, a parent may also need to consider relocating to keep a child safe, and our guide to relocation disputes explains how family violence is taken into account in that process, including internationally.

THE ROLE OF ORANGA TAMARIKI

Where concerns go beyond a dispute between parents, for example where a child may be at risk of serious harm, Oranga Tamariki can become involved under the separate framework set out in the Oranga Tamariki Act 1989. Anyone, including a parent, family member, or professional, can make a report of concern, which triggers an assessment by a social worker. The response depends on what is found, ranging from no further action, through working with the family voluntarily, to an urgent, without notice application to the Family Court for an interim care or protection order in the most serious cases.

A Family Group Conference is usually central to this process, giving whānau a genuine say in decisions about a child’s care wherever possible. Oranga Tamariki involvement is a separate legal track from a private parenting dispute under the Care of Children Act 2004, though the two can run alongside each other. In rare and extreme cases, the court can appoint itself as a child’s guardian, generally acting through Oranga Tamariki, which takes priority over the rights of existing guardians. Our guide to guardianship explains how this fits within the wider framework of who is responsible for a child.

Many parents understandably worry that any Oranga Tamariki contact means their children will be removed. In reality, most reports of concern are resolved through support and voluntary engagement with the family, without any Family Court application at all. Removal is reserved for cases of genuine, serious risk that cannot be managed by other means, and even then the law requires the least intrusive option that keeps a child safe to be preferred.

Children’s Safety FAQ