Page 1608 - Week 06 - Thursday, 23 July 2020
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certifying that they have received appropriate clinical treatment for gender affirmation, which can include counselling, and does not necessarily require medical treatment.
At 16, young people can already make independent decisions in many important aspects of their lives. Sixteen years is the age of consent for matters such as consensual sexual intercourse and medical treatment in most Australian jurisdictions. Currently in Tasmania, a person who is at least 16 years old can change their sex stated on a Tasmanian birth certificate by registering the person’s gender.
For young people between 12 and 15 inclusive who do not have parental consent, a new pathway is created through the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, or ACAT, which can grant leave to the young person to make an application to the Registrar-General. ACAT must grant leave if it finds that the young person has the ability to understand the meaning and legal implications of the change of registered details. In exceptional circumstances a young person under 12 may apply to the ACAT. They can do this only with the consent of one person with parental responsibility, recognising the dependence of children on their families and the need for parental support and guidance at this age.
Where a young person makes an application to the ACAT, parents will be informed and have the chance to be heard on the issue of the young person’s capacity to make this decision, unless the ACAT forms the view that notifying parents would present a real risk of adverse consequences for the young person. These provisions strike an appropriate balance between recognising the evolving maturity of young people and the need to ensure that families are involved as far as possible in these important decisions.
Turning now to the other aspect of the bill, in responding to the final report of the Domestic Adoptions Taskforce that was tabled in the Assembly in February 2017, the government agreed to explore issuing integrated birth certificates to support the adoption community. This bill fulfils that commitment by establishing the mechanism to issue integrated birth certificates upon application. Currently, when a child born in the ACT is adopted, a new birth certificate is issued that includes only the details of the adoptive parents, as if they were the birth parents, effectively erasing the history of the child’s birth parents. This fiction reflects historical attitudes to adoption, where secrecy was considered important to protect the child and adoptive family from the stigma associated with the child’s birth circumstances. Such historical attitudes no longer have a place in our community. The Australian community has moved towards accepting and promoting open adoptions. The option to obtain an integrated birth certificate allows for the recognition of the true history of a person’s birth and recognises the importance of both birth parents and adoptive parents.
The bill allows the Registrar-General to issue an integrated birth certificate to a person whose birth was registered in the ACT, and whose adoption order was made in Australia. The Registrar-General may also issue an integrated birth certificate to a person who was born overseas and adopted in the ACT. An integrated birth certificate may be issued only upon application, and such an application may be made for historical adoptions, as well as future adoptions. Some conditions will apply, reflecting existing protections around access to birth information in the Adoptions Act.
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