George v Children's Court of New South Wales & 4 Ors

(2003) 59 NSWLR 232; [2003] NSWCA 389

NSW Court of Appeal

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Interrogate

Catchwords

1. Children's Law
2. › Care and protection
3. › Children's Court jurisdiction
4. › Power to make orders
5. › Whether Children's Court has power to order Director-General to pay parents' travel expenses to facilitate contact with child in foster care
6. › Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW), s 74
1. Statutory Interpretation
2. › Exhaustive statutory code
3. › Whether statute provides exclusively and exhaustively for available relief
4. › Effect on general power provisions
5. › Children's Court Act 1987 (NSW), s 15
6. › Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW), ss 74, 86
1. Courts and Tribunals
2. › Inferior courts
3. › Implied powers
4. › Whether implied power to order expenditure by government department
5. › Distinction between inherent jurisdiction of superior courts and implied powers of inferior courts
6. › Children's Court Act 1987 (NSW), s 15

Quick Take

The Children's Court cannot order the Director-General of Community Services to pay parents' travel or accommodation expenses to facilitate contact with a child in foster care, absent the Director-General's consent. Section 74(3) of the CYP Act is subject to the consent requirement in s 74(2)(c). More broadly, the CYP Act provides an exhaustive code for the relief the Children's Court may order in relation to obligations of the Director-General and Minister, and neither s 15 of the Children's Court Act nor implied powers extend the Children's Court's jurisdiction beyond that code.