South Australian Consolidated Acts South Australian Consolidated Acts (1) In this Act,
unless the contrary intention appears—
"adoptive parent", of a child, means a person who has adopted the child in
accordance with the provisions of this Act or who is recognised under this Act
as having adopted the child;
"Australian law" means a law of the Commonwealth or of a State or Territory of
the Commonwealth;
"birth parent", of a child, means—
(a) the
woman who gave birth to the child; or
(b) the
man who—
(i)
acknowledges paternity of the child; or
(ii)
where paternity has not been acknowledged by anyone or is
in dispute—has been found to be the father by a court (whether of this
or any other jurisdiction) or has been adjudged to be the father under the
Family Relationships Act 1975 or any corresponding law of another
jurisdiction;
"Chief Executive" means the Chief Executive of the Department for Family and
Community Services;
"child" means a person who has not attained the age of 18 years;
"child born outside lawful marriage" includes a child born to a lawfully
married woman of which her husband is not the father;
"the Convention" means the Hague Convention on Protection of Children and
Cooperation in respect of Intercountry Adoption done at The Hague on 29 May
1993;
"Convention country" means a country outside Australia in respect of which
the Convention has entered into force, but does not include any country in
respect of which Australia has raised an objection in accordance with Article
44 of the Convention;
"the Court" means the Youth Court of South Australia ;
"Family Law Act 1975" means the Family Law Act 1975 (Cwth), as
amended from time to time;
"guardian", of a child, means a person (other than the Chief Executive) who is
the legal guardian of the child or has the legal custody of the child or any
other person who stands in loco parentis to the child and has done so for a
significant length of time;
"marriage relationship" means the relationship between two persons cohabiting
as husband and wife or de facto husband and wife;
"relative", of a person, means a grandparent, brother, sister, uncle or aunt
of the person, whether the relationship is of the whole blood or half blood or
by affinity.
(1a) For the purposes
of this Act, the Court must be constituted of a Judge, or a magistrate and
special justice.
(1b) If the Court is
constituted of a magistrate and special justice—
(a)
questions of law or procedure will be determined by the magistrate; and
(b)
other questions will be decided by agreement unless no agreement can be
reached, in which case, the decision of the magistrate will be the decision of
the Court.
(2) For the purposes
of this Act, a person will be regarded as an Aboriginal if—
(a) the
person is descended from an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander; and
(b) the
person regards himself or herself as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
or, if the person is a young child, at least one of the parents regards the
child as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander; and
(c) the
person is accepted as an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander by an Aboriginal
or Torres Strait Island community.
(3) If a man and woman
are married according to Aboriginal tradition, they will be regarded as
husband and wife for the purposes of this Act.
(4) A reference in
this Act to publication in the news media is a reference to publication—
(a) by
radio or television; or
(b) by
newspaper or other periodical publication; or
(c) by
public exhibition.