Page 695 - Week 02 - Thursday, 20 March 2014
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The requirements, therefore, set out in the new clause 10 of the bill are the same as those contained in the Australian government’s guidelines on the recognition of sex and gender. This means that a person will only need one document to change their cardinal documents, their passport and their birth certificate.
The bill explicitly provides that a person who has an entitlement under a will, trust or territory law will not lose the entitlement if that person’s sex is altered on the register unless the will, trust or territory law provides otherwise. The change gives extra certainty to people who are considering all the potential financial ramifications of a decision to apply to change their registered sex. These are also very important considerations.
This clarification is consistent with the ACT government’s policy that a person should not be discriminated against or subject to any loss of legal recognition on the basis of a decision to apply to change their registered sex.
Recognising that criteria for change of sex varies between jurisdictions, new section 65 clarifies that an interstate recognition certificate in whatever form it is issued by the responsible state or territory is evidence that the person mentioned in it is of the sex stated in the certificate. The bill also defines the meaning of “interstate recognition certificate” as a certificate issued under a corresponding law which, in many cases, will be a birth certificate.
The bill makes a number of amendments to the Birth, Deaths and Marriages Regulation. It clarifies that when notifying or registering the birth of a child, the sex of the child is only to be provided if it is able to be determined. The intention is to reduce pressure on doctors and parents to make a decision about the sex of a child where it is not clear, particularly if that decision may not be in the best interests of the child.
Clause 1.4 amends the regulation to limit those people, other than the person registered, who can be issued with a birth certificate. Previously a birth certificate could be issued to a spouse, civil union partner or civil partner or a former spouse, civil union partner or civil partner of a transsexual person. As well as removing the term “transsexual”, this bill amends this provision to limit the issue of certificates to a parent or person with parental responsibility for the person, an executor or administrator of the person’s estate or a lawyer authorised by the person. This amendment is necessary to protect the privacy of an individual who has changed their sex on their birth certificate.
Finally, the bill amends the definition of an intersex person to reflect the definition which is in the Sex Discrimination Act 1997. This amendment implements the council’s recommendation that a reference to a genetic condition be removed from the existing definition. The revised definition accords with the current accepted medical definition of “intersex” and brings consistency across our statute books. The bill removes a number of requirements that prevent the full legal recognition of sex and gender diverse people. In doing so, the bill strengthens the protection of the right to equality, the right to protection from compulsory medical treatment and the right to privacy.
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