Northern Territory Consolidated Acts Northern Territory Consolidated Acts45. General effect of adoption orders
(1) For the purposes of the laws of the Territory, but subject to this Act and to the provisions of any other law in force in the Territory that expressly distinguishes in any way between birth children and adopted children, on the making of an order for the adoption of a child -
(a) the child becomes a child of the adoptive parent or adoptive parents, and the adoptive parent becomes, or adoptive parents become, the parent or parents of the child as if that parent or those parents were the birth parent or parents of that child;
(b) the child ceases to be a child of any person who was a parent of the child before the making of the adoption order, and such person ceases to be a parent of the child;
(c) the relationship to one another of all persons affected by the order for the adoption of the child (including the child and a former parent of the child) shall be determined on the basis of the provisions of paragraphs (a) and (b) so far as they are relevant;
(d) an existing appointment of a person, by will or deed or otherwise in accordance with a law in force in the Territory, as guardian of the adopted child ceases to have effect; and
(e) a previous adoption of the child (whether effected under a law in force in the Territory or otherwise) ceases to have effect.
(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), for the purposes of any law of the Territory relating to a sexual offence, being a law for the purposes of which the relationship between persons is relevant, an adoption order, or the discharge of an adoption order, does not cause the cessation of any relationship that would have existed if the adoption order, or the discharging order, as the case may be, had not been made, and any such relationship is deemed to exist in addition to any relationship that exists by virtue of the application of that subsection in relation to the adoption order or by virtue of the discharge of the adoption order.