A New Zealand mother who was forced into hiding to escape her abusive Australian partner is now back in this country with her child after a rare win in the Australian courts.
The mother had fled Australia after she and her daughter suffered physical violence, but she was forced to go back, under the Hague Convention - an agreement signed in 1980 which requires abducted children to be returned to their place of habitual residence.
Gina Masterton is a lawyer and PhD student at Griffith University in Queensland and has been studying the Hague Convention and its effect on New Zealanders.
