Page 1013 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 19 March 2013
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proposes that the “indeterminate” category will only be used in the case of the birth of a premature stillborn child where the sex is not determinable. For registration of sex, the available categories will be expanded to include the category “intersex”.
The report highlighted the difficulty of strict time limits for parents who have an intersex child, especially where decisions about possible medical treatment must be made. The government supports the report’s recommendation to increase the period allowed in which parents must register the sex of a child from 60 to 180 days. This will assist parents by providing them with sufficient time to consider the complex issues arising from the birth of an intersex child and to make any necessary decisions.
The ACT Health Directorate already provides comprehensive support for parents of intersex children in these situations. The additional time proposed for registration will ensure that families can receive the full benefits of this support and not be rushed into making decisions without adequate time for consideration.
To uphold the integrity of the existing privacy protections, the government supports those recommendations aimed at ensuring that adequate measures remain in place in relation to access to information on the births, deaths and marriages register.
The council also considered in its report the legal protection for sex and gender diverse people currently provided for in the Discrimination Act 1991 and recommended amendments to that act that would change terminology and expand protected attributes to cover characteristics such as intersex, a person who is in transition from one sex to another, and physical presentation. As the council’s current reference is to review the Discrimination Act, the government notes these recommendations until it receives the council’s final report on its review of the Discrimination Act.
The council also found that appropriate legal recognition is hindered by the lack of consistency in the use of terminology in the ACT relating to sex and gender diverse people. As a result, the council made recommendations about amending terminology to promote clarity and accuracy in legislative references to sex and gender diversity.
The government generally supports these recommendations and acknowledges that referring to sex and gender diverse people in an appropriate and respectful way is a necessary step in remedying other gaps in legal recognition. However, this will necessarily be an incremental process achieved through legislative amendment and promotion of the use of consistent and clearly defined terminology across government.
In line with the recommendations, the use of specific terminology will also be considered in terms of its applicability and appropriateness for data collection by ACT public authorities. As the implementation of the government response progresses, the government will be considering practices of data collection by public authorities and how these can be improved to better recognise sex and gender diverse people respectfully. The report notes:
There are no nationally consistent procedures to assist transgender, transsexual or intersex people who wish to change the record of their sex in official documents such as birth certificates, medical records, bank statements or employment records.
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