Parenting Plans and Consent Orders: Which Should You Choose?
Most separated parents reach an agreement about their children without a judge deciding anything. The question that follows is how to write that agreement down. There are two ways to do it, and they are not interchangeable. One is a parenting plan. The other is a set of consent orders. The choice between them is one of the few decisions in this area that is genuinely difficult to reverse, and it is made far too often by default.
The Short Answer
A parenting plan is a written agreement between parents that is signed and dated. It is flexible, it costs very little, and it can be changed by agreement at any time. It is not enforceable. If the other parent stops following it, there is no penalty for that, and your remedy is to start the process of obtaining orders.
Consent orders are orders of the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia, made on the papers because both parents have agreed to them. They are enforceable. They can also be changed by agreement, but changing them against the wishes of the other parent means going back to court and meeting a threshold that is deliberately set high.
The trade is between flexibility and enforceability, and you cannot have both. A plan gives up enforceability to keep flexibility. Orders give up some flexibility to gain enforceability.
Two things surprise people most often.
The first is that a parenting plan signed after consent orders can change how those orders operate. Parents who go to the trouble of obtaining orders and then, a year later, sign a friendly written variation to accommodate a new work roster may have altered their legal position without intending to. The Act says so expressly, and the section that says so is discussed below.
The second is that consent orders are not simply a rubber stamp. The court is not required to make the orders you ask for. It must be satisfied that they are in the best interests of the child, and it can ask for more information or decline to make them.
On timing. There is no deadline for either document. But the moment when parents agree is not a moment that necessarily lasts. If the arrangement you have reached is one that you would need to enforce if the other parent walked away from it, the time to make it an order is now, while you both agree, rather than in two years when one of you does not.
This page deals with the two documents in detail. The wider law about children, including how the court decides where children live and who makes decisions for them, is dealt with on our parenting arrangements page. If you would rather talk it through, we are glad to do that instead.
The Law in Detail
What the Act Says About Agreement
The Family Law Act 1975 (Cth) encourages parents to agree. Section 63B says that parents are encouraged to agree about matters concerning the child, to take responsibility for their parenting arrangements and for resolving parental conflict, to use the legal system as a last resort rather than a first resort, and, in reaching their agreement, to regard the best interests of the child as the paramount consideration.
The Act also imposes obligations on lawyers and other advisers. Under section 63DA, an adviser who assists people about parental responsibility after separation must inform them that they could consider entering into a parenting plan, and must tell them where they can get help to develop one. That is part of the reason this page exists. It is not a formality. There are families for whom a plan is the right answer, and a lawyer who only ever recommends orders is not giving balanced advice.
What a Parenting Plan Is
A parenting plan is defined in section 63C. It is an agreement that is in writing, is made between the parents of a child, is signed by them, is dated, and deals with one or more of the matters the section lists. An agreement is not a parenting plan unless it is made free from any threat, duress or coercion.
The matters a plan may deal with include the person with whom a child is to live, the time a child is to spend with another person, the allocation of parental responsibility, the form of consultation the parents will have about decisions, the communication a child is to have with another person, the process for resolving disputes about the plan, the process for changing it, and any other aspect of the care, welfare or development of the child. A plan may also allocate responsibility for making decisions about major long-term issues, which is the Act’s term for matters such as education, religion, health and a child’s name.
A plan may include people other than the parents, such as grandparents, and the Act expressly allows communication to be by letter, telephone, email or other electronic means.
A plan is not filed with a court and is not registered anywhere. Registration of parenting plans was abolished more than twenty years ago. A plan that appears on a court letterhead, or that has been ‘lodged’ somewhere, is still a parenting plan and nothing more. It can be varied or revoked by a further agreement in writing between the parties: section 63D.
One limit is worth stating. A plan can contain terms about child support, but those terms have no effect under the Family Law Act: section 63CAA. They are enforceable only if the document also satisfies the separate requirements of the Child Support (Assessment) Act 1989 for a child support agreement, which for a binding agreement means each parent obtaining independent legal advice. A parenting plan is not the place to resolve child support unless it has been drafted to do both jobs.
A practitioner’s observation: the value of a parenting plan is not in the paper. It is in the process of writing it. Two parents who sit down and work out what happens at Christmas, who takes the children to the orthodontist, and how a change of shift is to be handled have done something useful, whether or not the document is ever enforced. Where the parents can talk to each other, a plan preserves that.
What a Consent Order Is
A parenting order is an order made by a court under Part VII of the Act. It can be made after a contested hearing or by consent. The people who may apply for one are set out in section 65C: either or both parents, the child, a grandparent, or any other person concerned with the care, welfare or development of the child.
Where the parents agree, they file an Application for Consent Orders together with the proposed orders signed by both of them. For parenting orders, a Notice of Child Abuse, Family Violence or Risk must also be filed. Since 31 October 2025 the Court has also required an unsigned Word version of the proposed orders to be uploaded so that it can be edited if necessary. The Court’s own guide to the process is at fcfcoa.gov.au, and the filing fee from 1 July 2026 is $215, with exemptions for concession card holders and people in financial hardship: Court fees.
The application is considered by a Registrar in chambers. There is no hearing. That does not make it automatic. The paramount consideration in section 60CA applies to consent orders as it does to any other parenting order. Section 60CC(4) provides that where the court is considering an order with the consent of all parties, it may, but is not required to, have regard to the best interests considerations in detail. In practice the Registrar reads the application, the proposed orders and the notice of risk, and if something does not sit right, asks for more information or lists the matter. Orders that are vague, that are internally inconsistent, or that appear to have been agreed under pressure are not made simply because both parents have signed them.
Once made, consent orders are orders of the Court. The word ‘consent’ describes how they came about. It does not describe a lesser kind of order. Our consent orders page explains the application process for both parenting and property orders.
Enforcement: The Real Difference
A parenting plan is not enforceable. If one parent does not do what the plan says, the other parent cannot ask a court to punish that. The plan is evidence of what was agreed, and it is relevant when a court later makes orders, but a breach of a plan is not a contravention of anything.
A parenting order is enforceable under Division 13A of Part VII, which was rewritten with effect from 6 May 2024. A person contravenes an order if they intentionally fail to comply with it, or make no reasonable attempt to comply with it, or, if the order does not bind them, they intentionally prevent compliance by someone it does bind: section 70NAC.
A person who has a reasonable excuse for the contravention is not penalised. The excuses recognised by section 70NAD include that the person did not understand the obligation and ought to be excused, and that they reasonably believed their conduct was necessary to protect the health or safety of a person, and the contravention lasted no longer than necessary. The person claiming the excuse has to prove it.
Where a contravention is established, the court has a range of responses, and the Act arranges them so that the aim is to get the order working again rather than to punish for its own sake.
- It can order make-up time, so that the child spends with the affected parent time that was lost: section 70NBB. It can do this at any stage of the proceedings, even before a contravention is found.
- It can vary or suspend the order: section 70NBC. A contravention application sometimes ends with orders that are different from the ones that were breached, because the hearing shows that the original orders were not workable.
- It can require a parent to attend a post-separation parenting program: section 70NBD.
- It can require the person to enter into a bond, order them to compensate the other party for reasonable expenses caused by the contravention, and impose a fine: section 70NBF.
- In the most serious cases it can impose a sentence of imprisonment of up to twelve months: section 70NCC. The court must first be satisfied of the contravention beyond reasonable doubt, and must be satisfied that no other response would be appropriate. It is rare, and it is meant to be.
The standard of proof for everything short of the most serious penalties is the balance of probabilities: section 70NAE. Costs can be ordered against a party in contravention proceedings, including against an applicant who brings an application that fails, under the general costs power in section 114UB, which replaced the former section 117 on 10 June 2025.
The practical point: enforcement is slower and more expensive than people expect, and a court dealing with a contravention is looking for a way to make the arrangement work, not for a way to punish the other parent. Even so, the existence of the enforcement machinery changes behaviour. Parents comply with orders that they would not comply with if the same words were in a plan, because they know what the alternative is.
Changing Each Document
A parenting plan is changed by agreement in writing. Nothing more is required. A plan cannot be changed by one parent alone, and a parent who wants a change the other will not agree to has no remedy under the plan itself. Their remedy is to seek orders.
Consent orders can also be changed by agreement. Fresh consent orders are filed in the same way as the first set, and section 65DAAA(3) expressly allows the court to reconsider final orders with the consent of all parties.
Changing final orders without the other parent’s agreement is a different matter. Since 6 May 2024, section 65DAAA has provided that a court must not reconsider a final parenting order unless it has considered whether there has been a significant change of circumstances since the order was made and is satisfied that, in all the circumstances, it is in the best interests of the child to reconsider it. That section put into the Act a rule the courts had applied for decades under the name of Rice v Asplund (1978), and in Radecki & Radecki [2024] FedCFamC1A 246 the Full Court confirmed that the court must actually decide whether there has been a significant change, not merely consider the question.
The reason for the rule is to protect children from repeated litigation about the same issues. The consequence for parents contemplating consent orders is that the orders should be written to last. Orders drafted around a four-year-old’s routine will not suit a fourteen-year-old, and if they do not contain a mechanism for that, one parent may be left asking a court for a change it is reluctant to consider.
How a Later Plan Affects an Earlier Order
This is the point most often misunderstood, including by people who have been through the process before. Under section 64D, a parenting order is taken to include a provision that the order is subject to a parenting plan later entered into by the child’s parents. In plain terms: if you have consent orders and you then sign a written, dated agreement with the other parent that changes the arrangements, the later document can displace the orders to the extent of the inconsistency, and conduct that would otherwise be a contravention of the orders may not be one.
The court can prevent that. Section 64D(2) allows it, in exceptional circumstances, to include a provision that the order may only be varied by a further order and not by a parenting plan. The Act gives as examples circumstances where a child needs protection from abuse, neglect or family violence, and where there is substantial evidence that one parent is likely to use coercion or duress to obtain the other’s agreement to a plan. Where that provision is included, a later plan has no effect on the orders.
Separately, section 65DAB requires a court making any parenting order to have regard to the terms of the most recent parenting plan, if doing so is in the child’s best interests. A plan is therefore never legally irrelevant, even though it is not enforceable. It is the most recent written record of what both parents thought was right.
The practical point: if you have orders and you want to agree an informal variation for a short period, say so in writing. A dated note that says ‘this is a temporary arrangement for the school holidays and the orders otherwise continue’ is very different from a signed document that reads like a new plan. If in doubt, ask before you sign.
Which Is Appropriate
A parenting plan tends to suit families where communication is functional, where there is no history of one parent withholding the children or ignoring agreements, where there are no safety concerns, and where the parents value the ability to adjust arrangements as the children grow without going back to a lawyer each time.
Consent orders tend to suit families where there has already been non-compliance, where there are safety concerns, where one parent has previously withheld a child, where a relocation is in contemplation, or where certainty is needed for reasons outside the relationship: a school that wants to see orders, a passport application, or international travel. They also suit families where the relationship is civil now but neither parent is confident it will stay that way.
A practitioner’s observation: a plan is sometimes described as the amicable option and orders as the adversarial one. That is not the right way to think about it. Consent orders are as amicable as the parents who agree to them, and they answer a question a plan leaves open, which is what happens if one of you changes your position. The better question is not which option is more cooperative, but what you would do if the other parent stopped complying tomorrow. If the honest answer is that you would need to go to court in any event, the orders should be obtained now, when you agree, rather than later, when you do not.
Where parents cannot agree at all, the path runs through family dispute resolution, which is dealt with on our family dispute resolution, mediation and arbitration page. Where a proposed move is the issue, see our page on relocation and new partners.
What Actually Happens, and What It Costs
What the Process Looks Like in Practice
Both documents begin in the same place: an agreement. What differs is how much work is needed to turn the agreement into something that will hold.
| Stage | What happens | Typical timeframe |
|---|---|---|
| Initial advice | We take instructions, find out what has been agreed and what has not, and advise on which document suits your family and why. | One to two weeks |
| Reaching agreement | If agreement has not yet been reached, this usually happens through family dispute resolution or through correspondence between lawyers. | Four to eight weeks to obtain a mediation date |
| Parenting plan | The agreement is drafted, checked by both parents, signed and dated. Nothing is filed. | One to two weeks after agreement |
| Consent orders: drafting | The orders are drafted in the Court’s form, the application and notice of risk are prepared, and both parents sign. | Two to four weeks after agreement |
| Consent orders: the Court | The application is filed and considered by a Registrar without a hearing. If more information is needed, the Court asks for it. | Commonly several weeks; the Court does not publish a fixed period |
| Contravention application | If an order is breached, an application is filed and listed before the Court. | Six to twelve weeks to a first hearing, longer if contested |
| Application to vary final orders | Where agreement to change orders cannot be reached, the applicant must first satisfy the significant change threshold. | Months, and twelve to twenty-four months if the matter runs to trial |
Those timeframes are indicative and they are not promises. Court processing times move, and an application that is complete and clearly drafted is dealt with more quickly than one that requires the Registrar to come back with questions.
What Actually Drives the Cost
A parenting plan is the cheapest document in family law. Consent orders cost more, because they must be drafted to a court standard and filed, but they remain a fraction of the cost of a contested application. What moves the cost is the following.
- Whether agreement has already been reached. Drafting an agreed arrangement is a modest task. Negotiating one is not.
- How much the orders need to cover. Orders that deal with school holidays, overseas travel, passports, changeover locations, communication and decision-making take longer to draft than orders that deal with a fortnightly routine, and they are worth the extra time.
- Whether the other parent is legally represented. Two lawyers who know what they are doing usually settle the wording faster than one lawyer and one parent working from a template.
- Whether the Court asks for more information. This is uncommon, but where it happens it adds a round of work.
- Whether you are dealing with a breach. Contravention proceedings are contested litigation and are priced accordingly. They are also the clearest illustration of why the choice of document matters: a parent with a plan has no contravention application to bring.
We provide written costs disclosure before we act, and we will tell you at the outset if we think the likely legal cost is disproportionate to what is actually in dispute. For most families, the cost of consent orders is a one-off expense that removes a much larger contingent one.
Questions and Answers
Is a parenting plan legally binding?
No. A parenting plan is a written, signed and dated agreement that the Act recognises, and a court must have regard to it when making orders later. But it cannot be enforced. If the other parent does not comply, there is no contravention application available to you.
Do we need a lawyer to make a parenting plan?
Not as a matter of law. Any written agreement between parents that is signed, dated and made without pressure can be a parenting plan. Whether you should have one drafted or reviewed depends on how much is at stake in it. A plan that is going to be relied on later, or that may become the basis of consent orders, is worth having checked.
Can we turn our parenting plan into consent orders later?
Yes, and this is common. The plan becomes the starting point for the proposed orders. Some of its terms will need to be rewritten, because language that works in a plan is often too loose to be enforced as an order.
Will the court just approve whatever we agree?
Not automatically. The court must be satisfied that the orders are in the best interests of the child. It may, but is not required to, work through the detailed best interests considerations, and where something in the application raises a concern it can ask for more information or decline to make the orders.
How long do consent orders take to be made?
In our experience, several weeks from filing where the application is complete and the orders are clearly drafted. The Court does not publish a fixed processing time, and an application that raises questions takes longer.
Can consent orders be changed if we both agree?
Yes. You file fresh consent orders, and the Act expressly permits the court to reconsider final orders with the consent of everyone bound by them. You can also sign a later parenting plan, but you should understand that a later plan can affect how the orders operate, and that this may or may not be what you intend.
What if only one of us wants to change the orders?
That parent must apply to the court, and the court must not reconsider the orders unless it finds that there has been a significant change of circumstances since they were made and that reconsideration is in the child’s best interests. Children growing older is not, of itself, enough. This is why orders should be drafted to accommodate the children’s development in the first place.
What happens if my former partner breaches the orders?
You can file a contravention application. The court will first decide whether there was a contravention and whether there was a reasonable excuse. If there was a contravention without excuse, it can order make-up time, vary the orders, require attendance at a parenting program, impose a bond or a fine, order compensation for expenses, and in the most serious cases impose imprisonment. Costs can be ordered either way.
Can a parenting plan include child support?
It can contain terms about child support, but those terms have no effect under the Family Law Act. They are enforceable only if the document also meets the requirements of the child support legislation for a child support agreement. If child support is part of what you want to agree, tell your lawyer so the document is drafted to do both jobs.
