Grandparents' Rights in Australia Under the Family Law Act

Grandparents in Australia do not have an automatic right to see their grandchildren, but the Family Law Act 1975 gives them a standalone right to apply for a parenting order under section 65C(ba), without needing to first clear the "person concerned with the care, welfare or development of the child" threshold that anyone else applying under section 65C(c) must meet, and separate from the express mention grandparents lost when the objects and best-interests provisions were rewritten in 2024.

What the Family Law Act actually gives grandparents

Section 65C sets out who may apply for a parenting order, and grandparents get their own paragraph, (ba), alongside the child's parents and the child, separate from paragraph (c)'s catch-all for "any other person concerned with the care, welfare or development of the child." A grandparent does not have to show they are already involved in a child's care to have standing; being a grandparent is enough on its own. The same pattern repeats elsewhere in Part VII: a grandparent has the same named standing to apply for a location order (section 67K) or a recovery order (section 67T), both again separate from the general "any other person concerned" category. The Act's definition of "relative of a child" (section 4(1)) also lists a grandparent as its own distinct category.

This article covers the grandparent-specific layer. For the general parenting-order framework, including the current section 60CC best-interests factors and the 2023 repeal of the presumption of equal shared parental responsibility, see Parenting Orders in Australia. For how a contested application proceeds through the court, see The Family Court Process in Australia.

The 2024 change: lost the express mention, kept explicit standing

The Family Law Amendment Act 2023, effective 6 May 2024, removed an explicit reference to grandparents from the Act's objects clause and best-interests provisions. Pre-2024, section 60B(2)(b) named grandparents among the people a child has an interest in maintaining a relationship with, using the words "such as grandparents and other relatives," and section 60CC(3)(b)(ii) and (3)(d)(ii) both listed "any grandparent or other relative of the child" as a named consideration. Both were removed in the 2023 rewrite.

What is directly verified against the current compiled Act: section 60B, the objects clause, now reads as two short paragraphs only, ensuring a child's best interests including safety, and giving effect to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. No subsection names grandparents or any other specific relationship, and section 60CC was similarly restructured into a single tier of considerations that does not name them either.

Grandparents did not disappear from the Act. They now sit under the general language of section 60CC(2)(e), "the benefit to the child of being able to have a relationship with the child's parents, and other people who are significant to the child, where it is safe to do so." A grandparent seeking contact must persuade a court they are such a significant person, under the same test applied to any other party. Content relying on older material is likely to claim the objects clause names grandparents specifically; it currently does not. The Federal Circuit and Family Court's own guidance corroborates the practical result, treating "a grandparent" and "a person concerned with the care, welfare and development of the child" as two distinct standing routes, matching section 65C.

The best-interests test as it applies to grandparents

Once a grandparent has standing, the outcome is decided under section 60CC, the same test used for any parenting-order application. The section 60CC(2) general considerations are: safety (a); the child's own views (b); developmental, psychological, emotional and cultural needs (c); each proposed carer's capacity to meet those needs (d); the benefit of a relationship with parents and other significant people, where safe (e); and any other relevant matter (f). Section 60CC(2A) folds a history of family violence, abuse or neglect, and any family violence order, into the safety consideration; section 60CC(3) adds a further factor for an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander child's culture. See AVO and Family Violence Order Laws in Australia for how a violence order interacts with parenting proceedings generally.

There is no separate, easier, or harder version of this test for grandparents, which is the direct answer to a common misconception: grandparents do not have an automatic right to see their grandchildren. Standing under section 65C(ba) gets a grandparent through the courthouse door; section 60CC decides what happens once they are inside, on the same neutral basis as any other applicant.

Before you file: family dispute resolution applies to grandparents too

Section 60I requires a genuine effort at family dispute resolution before applying to the court, and an application generally cannot be accepted for filing without a practitioner's certificate or a court-granted exemption. This binds a grandparent's application on exactly the same terms as a parent's; the Act contains no grandparent-specific carve-out. Confirmed exemption grounds include consent or responding applications, reasonable grounds to believe there has been or is a risk of child abuse or family violence, a prior order on the same issue within the last 12 months with an alleged serious breach, and urgency. Further grounds beyond these exist in the Act; a grandparent who thinks an exemption may apply should get that assessed against the current text rather than assume from a general description.

What a grandparent can apply for

Standing under section 65C(ba) covers a parenting order dealing with whom a child spends time with, whom they communicate with, or who holds parental responsibility for them. Section 65G adds a safeguard that is easy to misread as grandparent-specific but is not: when a court is asked to make a consent order, and under that proposed order neither a parent, a grandparent, nor another relative would end up with the child, the court cannot approve it without a family consultant conference first, unless satisfied that step can be skipped. This treats a grandparent as part of the family tier the Act protects against a child's care passing entirely outside the family without an extra check, not as a mechanism giving a grandparent priority to take over care. Because standing extends across Part VII, a grandparent can also apply for a location order to find where a child is, or a recovery order to have a child returned, if an order in their favour is being breached.

Step-grandparents: a genuinely open question

Whether a step-grandparent is treated the same as a grandparent for section 65C(ba) standing is not resolved by the current text. Section 65C(ba) refers only to "a grandparent," and the Act's general "relative" definition lists a grandparent as its own category without separately listing a step-grandparent, even though the same definition does separately list a step-parent and step-siblings. A related but narrower provision elsewhere in the Act, dealing with violence-related information on a recovery or location order, explicitly treats "a grandparent or step-grandparent" as two distinct categories, which cuts the other way. This article does not resolve the question either way; a step-grandparent should get advice specific to their situation.

When grandparents step in as carers: two different systems

Standing to apply for a parenting order is federal and covers all of Australia; that is what the sections above describe. Separately, when a state child protection department decides a child cannot live with their parents and places them with a grandparent, or approves an arrangement a family already made informally, that grandparent can become what the Federal Circuit and Family Court calls a kinship carer: someone in the extended family or a family friend who becomes a child's primary carer, without the formal legal role a parent has by default.

These systems can overlap, but neither requires the other. A grandparent can apply for a Family Court parenting order without any state agency ever being involved, and can become a state-approved kinship carer without going to the Family Court, if a state department places the child with them directly. What triggers a state financial care allowance is generally the state approval, not the federal order by itself.

Federal payments for grandparent carers

Services Australia treats "grandparent carer" as a defined category for payment purposes, narrower than everyday usage: a grandparent qualifies if they provide ongoing care and make the day-to-day decisions for a grandchild, not for occasional babysitting or covering a parent's work or study. A grandparent living in the same household as the child's parent is generally not eligible for these grandparent-carer payments, even with substantial caregiving, though Services Australia says to contact them to discuss individual circumstances. "Grandparent" for this purpose is defined broadly, covering biological, adoptive, step and great-grandparents and certain related categories, but explicitly excludes former partners of step-grandparents and step-great-grandparents.

Family Tax Benefit Part A is paid to an eligible grandparent carer at the same rates as any other eligible carer. Current rates: base rate $75.60 per child per fortnight, not a guaranteed minimum since a family can be paid less depending on income; maximum rate $235.48 per child per fortnight for a child aged 0 to 12, and $306.46 for a child aged 13 to 15, or 16 to 19 and meeting study requirements. An annual supplement, paid after end-of-year balancing, is up to $938.05 per eligible child for FY2025-26 and up to $970.90 for FY2026-27.

The Additional Child Care Subsidy Grandparent has separate eligibility rules: the grandparent, or their partner, must already be eligible for Child Care Subsidy, receive an income support payment, provide 65 percent or more of the child's care, and make the day-to-day care decisions. That 65 percent threshold is distinct from how much subsidised care the subsidy actually covers, described as up to 100 hours per fortnight; the two figures answer different questions and should not be conflated. A grandparent with 65 percent or more care but no income support payment may still access standard Child Care Subsidy with a participation exemption.

Other federal supports named for grandparent carers, without a dollar figure captured for this article, include the Double Orphan Pension (both parents deceased, or a small number of other defined situations such as long-term imprisonment or an unknown whereabouts), the Foster Child Health Care Card (reduces medicine costs, no formal foster-carer status required), and the Assistance for Isolated Children Scheme. A grandparent raising a grandchild can also seek child support from both parents as a non-parent carer; see Child Support in Australia. Services Australia also runs a Grandparent, Foster and Kinship Carer Adviser phone line, 1800 245 965.

State kinship care: New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland

Kinship care approval, case management, and the care allowance a grandparent receives once a state agency formally places a child with them or approves an existing arrangement, are state matters, run separately in each of Australia's eight states and territories. This section covers only New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, the jurisdictions with primary sources opened for this article. It makes no claim about Western Australia, South Australia, Tasmania, the Northern Territory or the ACT; a grandparent in any of those should contact their own state or territory child protection department directly.

A distinction that runs through all three jurisdictions, and that families commonly conflate, is between a formal, statutory kinship placement approved by the state child protection agency, and an informal, private arrangement made without agency involvement. Generally, only the formal, agency-approved pathway carries a state financial care allowance.

New South Wales. The Department of Communities and Justice pays a Care Allowance to all authorised carers, including relative and kinship carers. It is not a wage, not taxable income, and not means-tested; the department states all carers must receive at least a minimum standard rate, reviewed each financial year for cost-of-living indexation. Specific current dollar figures sit behind an expandable section on the department's page and were not captured for this article; check that page directly for current rates. NSW support materials indicate the allowance can also extend to children under a Family Law Act order where the department itself intervened in the proceedings, meaning a grandparent who wins a federal parenting order is not automatically shut out of state support in that scenario, but that point is drawn from a secondary summary rather than independently confirmed here and should be checked with the department directly. The Grandparent, Relative and Kinship Carer Alliance, run through the Council on the Ageing, is named as an advocacy and support-referral group.

Victoria. The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing describes kinship care as the preferred placement type for children who cannot live with their parents. Victoria draws the same distinction as New South Wales between statutory kinship placements, where Child Protection has intervened and a Children's Court order may be involved, and private or informal kinship care without any Child Protection intervention. Only statutory kinship carers assessed and approved by Child Protection are eligible for the government care allowance; private arrangements are not funded. A Working with Children Check is required within 21 days of placement, is free for kinship carers, and renews every five years. Specific current dollar figures for the allowance were not captured for this article; check the department's rate information directly.

Queensland. Becoming an approved kinship carer requires being 18 or older, holding a Blue Card, and an assessment covering criminal, child protection, domestic violence and traffic history checks, a household safety study, and interviews of the applicant and household members. An approved carer receives a Certificate of Approval, initially for 12 months and renewable every three years after; training is offered but not mandatory for kinship carers. The caring allowance, paid fortnightly per placed child, is described as a reimbursement of real caring costs, not a wage and not taxable income; the specific current rate was not captured for this article. Queensland also runs Time for Grandparents, free respite activities for grandparents who are primary carers but not receiving the caring allowance and not formally approved as kinship carers, reachable on the Grandparents Information Line, 1300 135 500. A grandparent without a state-approved kinship placement may instead need the federal parenting-order process above to formalise a caring arrangement. Queensland's own kinship-care guide explicitly excludes situations where a Family Court order is already in place, treating that as a separate track handled through Centrelink rather than the state kinship system.

The court's own guidance

The Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia publishes a dedicated grandparents page, restating the section 65C standing test in plain language and describing kinship care in its own words. It is explicit that a grandparent does not need a lawyer to apply, though it recommends getting legal advice given the complexity of family law. For urgent cases where no parent is available to care for a child, because of death, critical injury, or incarceration connected to a family violence incident, the court runs a Critical Incident List to sort urgent parental-responsibility orders quickly, which can matter for dealing with a child's school or healthcare providers. The court names the federally funded Family Relationship Advice Line, on 1800 050 321, as a first point of call for parenting-arrangement advice, family dispute resolution information, and a free legal-advice callback, ahead of engaging a private lawyer.

For the broader family law picture, see the Australia family law hub.