NSW Introduces Integrated Birth Certificates

The Federal Assistant Minister for Children and Families, Michelle Landry MP, has today commended the NSW Government for moving to introduce integrated birth certificates.

As part of the historic reforms introduced to the NSW Parliament this week, people who have been adopted in that state will be given the choice to have both their birth and adopted families included on their birth certificate. 

This is significant because under existing state law, a birth certificate issued by the NSW Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages after a person is adopted, can only record the child’s adoptive parents and any adoptive siblings – making no reference to the birth parents.

Assistant Minister Landry welcomed this announcement and said that it would build on the impressive achievements that the NSW Government had already delivered in recent years, in relation to open adoption and permanency. 

“Integrated birth certificates represent a positive step forward towards ensuring that people who have been adopted are given full recognition of their identity, their families, and their cultural heritage,” Assistant Minister Landry said. 

“Open adoption in Australia is about strengthening transparency in the adoption process, providing a sense of belonging for people who have been adopted, and maintaining relationships with their birth parents and extended families. Integrated birth certificates will help make this possible.”

“I congratulate the NSW Attorney-General Mark Speakman and the Minister for Families, Communities and Disability Services Gareth Ward, for their leadership in making these reforms a reality”. 

The introduction of integrated birth certificates was also a recommendation of a 2018 federal inquiry into local adoption conducted by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs. 

Of 211 known adoptions of Australian children in 2018-19, 165 occurred in NSW. 

More information on the NSW reforms can be found here.