Dear Attorney-General's Department,

The Australian Central Authority for the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction provides application statistics on the Attorney-General's Department website at the following web address:

https://www.ag.gov.au/FamiliesAndMarriag...

I request more detailed information be provided which includes statistics on a per country basis (i.e not a catch all "Proportion all other countries"), and outcomes of applications and/or cases for return of child and visitation. Parents need to know how and why children were returned, or not returned and the success of visitation applications on a per country basis. For example:

* For return of child from country A, out of all cases resulting in successful returns, X number were successful enforcement of return orders, Y number were result of mediation etc.
* For return of child from country A, out of all cases resulting in denial of return petition, X number were denied due to place of habitual residence issues, Y number were denied due to <insert> ground for refusal etc.

There are many issues with the provided information in determining how effective the Hague Convention return of child and visitation processes are in securing return of child(ren) and access to children. The requested information is extremely important to assist left behind parents in determining whether the long and expensive Hague Convention processes will be effective in the country where their child or children have been abducted to or retained in.

Yours faithfully,

Michael Cohen
Left Behind Parent

Dear FOI Requests,

I have emailed [email address] directly with a revised request with a narrower scope of only detailed information regarding incoming and outgoing Hague Convention visitation and return of child applications/cases involving the country of Japan. I am waiting to hear back from the Attorney-General's Department about this revised request for information.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Cohen