02/2024 Child Safety Hair Testing - Alcohol

When a court is deciding on awarding custody (FCFCoA) or restoring parental rights (Children's Court) they will require a hair test for drugs and/or alcohol. This is based on a variety of factors including a persons health records (i.e. prescriptions for medications used to treat alcoholism, admittance to rehab etc.) and/or criminal record (i.e. drug related offences, alcohol related offences etc.).

Between March 2024 and June 2024 we received orders from the following courts to conduct hair follicle testing:

• Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (approximately 80% of the orders)

• Children's Court of New South Wales - Lismore (approximately 20% of the orders)
  

28.57% of all persons tested were confirmed positive for excessive amounts of alcohol.

71.43% of all persons tested were confirmed negative for excessive amounts of alcohol.

This is a better result than the first quarter but it still is a long way from 0.

We had no successful appeals against any alcohol testing performed by our service in this time period.