New South Wales Consolidated Acts

ADOPTION ACT 2000 - SECT 180

180 Restriction on publication of material identifying persons affected by adoption application

(1) A person must not publish material that identifies, or is reasonably likely to identify, a person as a person affected by an adoption application.

Maximum penalty: 25 penalty units or imprisonment for 12 months, or both.

(2) For the purposes of this section, each of the following persons is a "person affected" by an adopted application:

(a) a child in relation to whom an adoption application is made,

(b) a person who makes an adoption application,

(c) the mother and father of the child in relation to whom an adoption application is made, and any other person who has parental responsibility for the child when the adoption application is made.

(3) This section does not prohibit:

(a) the publication of any material with the authority of the Court under section 180A, or

(b) the publication of an official report of proceedings in the Court that includes the name of any person the publication of which would otherwise be prohibited by this section.

(4) This section does not prohibit the publication of any material after an adoption application and any proceedings in the Court with respect to the application have been finally disposed of:

(a) if the person identified (or reasonably likely to be identified) as a person affected by the adoption application consents to being identified, and

(b) the material does not identify (and is not reasonably likely to identify) any person affected by the adoption application who does not consent to being identified.

(5) In subsection (4), a reference to the consent of a person affected by an adoption application is, if that person is a child less than 18 years of age, a reference to the consent of the person who has parental responsibility for the child.

(6) In this section:
"adoption application" means an application under this Act or under a law of another State for an adoption order.