STATUS OF CHILDREN ACT 1974 - SECT 29H Court may revoke registration order

STATUS OF CHILDREN ACT 1974 - SECT 29H

    (1)     The court may revoke a registration order on an application under section 29G if satisfied—

        (a)     as to any of the following grounds—

              (i)     the registration order was obtained by fraud, duress, misleading the court or other improper means;

              (ii)     if a consent was required for the making of the registration order, the consent was not an effective consent because it was obtained by fraud, duress or material inducement;

              (iii)     there is an exceptional reason that the registration order should be revoked; and

        (b)     that the revocation of the registration order is in the best interests of the child whose birth registration would be affected.

    (2)     If the corresponding surrogacy parentage order is discharged by the court that made it, the court must revoke a registration order on an application under section 29G without being satisfied as to any matter in subsection (1).

    (3)     The court must not make an order under subsection (1) or (2) revoking a registration order unless the court is satisfied that reasonable efforts have been made to give notice of the application to—

        (a)     the surrogate mother of the child whose birth registration would be affected; and

        (b)     if the surrogate mother had a partner who was also a party to the surrogacy arrangement, that partner; and

S. 29H(3)(c) amended by No. 39/2021 s. 53.

        (c)     each of the intended parents; and

        (d)     if the court considers it appropriate having regard to the child's age, the child whose birth registration would be affected.

    (4)     On making an order revoking a registration order, the court may make any consequential or ancillary order it thinks fit in the interests of justice or in the best interests of the child whose birth registration is affected having regard to any order made in respect of the child in another Australian State or a Territory, including an order made under the corresponding interstate surrogacy law of that Australian State or Territory.

    (5)     For the purposes of subsection (1)(a)(ii), material inducement does not include any reimbursement of costs permitted by—

        (a)     the relevant corresponding interstate surrogacy law; or

        (b)     any prescribed law of the other Australian State or Territory in which the corresponding surrogacy parentage order was made.

S. 29I inserted by No. 80/2014 s. 35.