Family Law (Bilateral Arrangements—Intercountry Adoption) Regulations 2023

I, General the Honourable David Hurley AC DSC (Retd), Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, acting with the advice of the Federal Executive Council, make the following regulations.

Dated 16 March 2023

David Hurley

Governor-General

By His Excellency’s Command

Amanda Rishworth

Minister for Social Services

Contents

Part 1—Preliminary 1

1 Name 1

2 Commencement 1

3 Authority 1

4 Definitions 1

5 Prescribed overseas jurisdictions 2

Part 2—International agreements about adoption 3

6 Purpose and application of Part 3

7 Recognition of an adoption of a child in a prescribed overseas jurisdiction 3

8 Effect of recognition of an adoption 4

9 Evidential value of adoption compliance certificate 4

 1 Preliminary
1 Name

This instrument is the Family Law (Bilateral Arrangements—Intercountry Adoption) Regulations 2023.
2 Commencement 1

Each provision of this instrument specified in column 1 of the table commences, or is taken to have commenced, in accordance with column 2 of the table. Any other statement in column 2 has effect according to its terms.
Commencement information Commencement information Commencement information
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
Provisions Commencement Date/Details
1. The whole of this instrument The day after this instrument is registered. 23 March 2023

Note: This table relates only to the provisions of this instrument as originally made. It will not be amended to deal with any later amendments of this instrument.

 2

Any information in column 3 of the table is not part of this instrument. Information may be inserted in this column, or information in it may be edited, in any published version of this instrument.
3 Authority

This instrument is made under the Family Law Act 1975.
4 Definitions 1

In this instrument:

Act means the Family Law Act 1975.

adoption compliance certificate: see paragraph 7(1)(d).

Australian law means a law of the Commonwealth, a State or a Territory.

child means an individual who has not reached 18 years.

competent authority means:

 a

for a prescribed overseas jurisdiction—a person, body or office in the overseas jurisdiction responsible for approving the adoption of children; or

 b

for a State or Territory of Australia in which a person adopting a child habitually resides—a person, body or office in the State or Territory responsible for approving the adoption of children.

parental responsibility, in relation to a child, has the same meaning as in section 61B of the Act.

 2

A term that is used in both this instrument and section 111C of the Act has the same meaning in this instrument as in that section.
5 Prescribed overseas jurisdictions

For the purposes of the definition of prescribed overseas jurisdiction in subsection 4(1) of the Act, the following overseas jurisdictions are declared to be a prescribed overseas jurisdiction for the purposes of section 111C of the Act and a provision of this instrument:

 a

Republic of Korea;

 b

Taiwan.
2 International agreements about adoption
6 Purpose and application of Part 1

This Part is made for the purposes of subsection 111C(3) of the Act.

 2

(2) A provision of this Part does not apply to a State or Territory in which there is in force a law (an overseas jurisdiction adoption law) of the State or Territory that has the same effect that the provision would, except for this Part, have in relation to an adoption.

 3

Nothing in this Part affects:

 a

the jurisdiction of a court, or the power of an authority, under an overseas jurisdiction adoption law, to entertain proceedings, make an order or take any other action in relation to an adoption; or

 b

any such order or action mentioned in paragraph (a); or

 c

the operation, within a State or Territory, of an overseas jurisdiction adoption law of the State or Territory.
7 Recognition of an adoption of a child in a prescribed overseas jurisdiction 1

This section applies to an adoption of a child in a prescribed overseas jurisdiction (including an adoption that took place in the overseas jurisdiction before it became a prescribed overseas jurisdiction) if:

 a

at the time of the adoption, the child was habitually resident in the prescribed overseas jurisdiction; and

 b

the adoption was by a person habitually resident in a State or Territory of Australia; and

 c

the competent authority of the State or Territory has agreed that the adoption may proceed; and

 d

(d) a certificate (an adoption compliance certificate) is in force in relation to the adoption that:

 i

was issued by a competent authority of the prescribed overseas jurisdiction; and

 ii

states that the adoption was carried out in accordance with the laws of the prescribed overseas jurisdiction; and

 e

the adoption has the effect of ending the legal relationship between the child and each person who was, immediately before the adoption, the child’s parent; and

 f

a federal, State or Territory court has not made:

 i

an adoption order in relation to the child; or

 ii

an order recognising or declaring the adoption to be valid.

 2

The adoption is recognised and effective, for the purposes of an Australian law, on and after the date of effect of the adoption.
8 Effect of recognition of an adoption

Recognition of the adoption of a child includes the recognition, for the purposes of an Australian law, that:

 a

the relationship between the child and each of the child’s adoptive parents is the relationship of child and parent; and

 b

each adoptive parent of the child has parental responsibility for the child; and

 c

the child has the same rights as a child who is adopted under the laws of a State or Territory of Australia.
9 Evidential value of adoption compliance certificate

An adoption compliance certificate is evidence, for the purposes of an Australian law, that the adoption to which the certificate relates was carried out in accordance with the laws of the prescribed overseas jurisdiction whose competent authority issued the certificate.