Consult children, says council

Press, 23 April 1979, Page 7

Consult children, says council

PA Wellington Children should be asked what parent they wanted to live with in divorce custody cases, according to the National Council of Women. The council, in a submission to Parliament’s Statutes Revision Committee on the Family Proceedings Bill, said custody should go to the parent wno seemed better able to meet the child’s needs. In custody cases, the well-being of the child or children should be of paramount concern. Children should be asked what parent they wanted to live with and they should have the right to be represented at custody hearings by a suitably qualified and experienced person who had been briefed on the ilySocial education in schools should include courses on relationship repsonsibilities, parenthood, and the provisions of family proceedings legislation. Counselling should be offered in an informal atmosphere as soon as the stability of a marriage was threatened and family courts, as recommended by the Royal Commission on the courts, should be established. The council also sought a reappraisal of the value of a separation order in cases where the occupancy of the matrimonial home was in question. The council’s submission agreed with the bill’s provision that the only ground for divorce should be the irreconcilable breakdown of a marriage.