Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

ADOPTION OF CHILDREN ACT - SECT 53

(1) Subject to this section, where -

(a) a non-citizen child has been adopted in accordance with the law of an overseas country, whether or not the adoption is an adoption which, under this Act, has the same effect (and no other effect) as an order for adoption under this Act;

(b) the adoption of the child has been in force for not more than 12 months;

(c) no adoptive parent, whether there is one or 2, was a national or citizen of that overseas country at the time the adoption was made; and

(d) the child is present in the Territory,

the Minister may supervise the welfare and interests of the child for a period not exceeding 12 months commencing on the date of the arrival of the child in the Territory and an approved person has a right of access to the child at all reasonable times during that period.

(2) Where a child whose welfare and interests may be supervised under subsection (1) by the Minister has, after being adopted but before arriving in the Territory, been resident in a State or another Territory of the Commonwealth, the period during which the child is subject to the supervision of the Minister is reduced by that period of residence in the State or other Territory.

(3) The Minister may, in his or her discretion, exempt a child, to whom subsection (1) would otherwise apply, from the application of that subsection and accordingly that subsection shall not apply to or in relation to that child.