Section 64D — Family Law Act 1975: 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.