Family Court opens doors to public scrutiny

The winds of publicity are about to blow through the once secretive Family Court.

Under the new Care of Children Act, which replaces the Guardianship Act, the media will be able to report on the court's business from the start of next month.

At a media briefing in Auckland yesterday, the chairman of the family law section of the New Zealand Law Society, Simon Maude, said judges welcomed the new openness.

He said that the new legislation trod a fine line between ensuring public scrutiny of court proceedings and opening private family disputes to public gaze.

Reporters will have to be accredited. Identification of parties will be suppressed in news reports, though judges may grant permission to publish details in special circumstances.

Speakers at a seminar in the Auckland District Law Society building said the aim of the new legislation was to promote children's welfare by helping to ensure that appropriate arrangements were in place for guardianship and care.

The act defines parents' rights as guardians, but also emphasises their responsibilities.

Biological fathers will have stronger rights to guardianship and the court will have increased power to rule on paternity issues.

The same-sex partner of a birth mother may be deemed a legal parent of a child.

Non-partner donors of assisted reproduction will be able to ask the court to enforce any agreement with the parent for contact.