New South Wales Consolidated Acts

BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES REGISTRATION ACT 1995 - SECT 28

28 Application to register change of child's name

(1) The parents of a child may apply to the Registrar, in a form approved by the Registrar, for registration of a change of the child's name if--

(a) the child's birth is registered in the State, or

(b) the child was born outside Australia, the child's birth is not registered in Australia and the child has been resident in the State for at least 3 consecutive years immediately preceding the date of the application.

(2) If the parents of the child are dead, cannot be found or for some other reason cannot exercise their parental responsibilities in relation to the child, the application may be made by a person to whom a court within Australia has allocated--

(a) parental responsibility for the child, or

(b) specific aspects of parental responsibility for the child so long as the making of the application is not outside the scope of the aspects allocated.

(2A) If there is more than one such person referred to in subsection (2), the application may be made only as a joint application of those persons.

(3) An application for registration of a change of a child's name may be made by one parent if--

(a) the applicant is the sole parent named in the registration of the child's birth under this Act or any other law (including a corresponding law), or

(a1) the parent has sole parental responsibility, under a final parenting order made under the Family Law Act 1975 of the Commonwealth, to make decisions about--

(i) major long-term issues for the child within the meaning of that Act, or

(ii) the child's name, or

(b) there is no other surviving parent of the child, or

(c) a court approves the proposed change of name.

(4) The District Court may, on application by a child's parent, approve a proposed change of name for the child if satisfied that the change is in the child's best interests.

(5) If any court (including any court of another State or the Commonwealth) approves a proposed name for a child, the court may order the Registrar to register the child's name in a form specified in the order.

(6) In this section--

"parental responsibility" , in relation to a child, means all the duties, powers, responsibilities and authority which, by law, parents have in relation to their children.