The Act provides that the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages may issue a birth certificate which contains both the information about the birth of a person that is kept on the Register under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995, and the adoption details of the person, kept on the register under the Act.
An integrated birth certificate contains information about the birth of a person, including an adopted person’s birth parents and birth siblings as well as the person’s adoption information, including their adoptive parents and adoptive siblings. The integrated birth certificate is recognised as admissible in legal proceedings as evidence of the entry in the Register to which the certificate relates and also of the facts recorded in the entry. This practice allows for an adopted person to choose which certificate they would like to use.
The Act provides that for an adoption registered on or after the commencement of the Act, the registrar must issue an integrated birth certificate, in addition to a post-adoption birth certificate. For all persons registered before the commencement, the Act sets out the access entitlements for particular people (such as the adopted person, if under the age of 18, the adoptive parents, birth parents) to receive an integrated birth certificate.
The Act passed Parliament on 17 September 2020.
Link: Adoption Legislation Amendment (Integrated Birth Certificates) Act 2020.
Instructor:
Department of Communities and Justice
Drafter:
Jennifer Roan, Senior Assistant Parliamentary Counsel
Production and Access:
Carole Hemingway
Ming Wong, Former Principal Quality Assurance Officer
Edna Palermo
