Western Australian Consolidated Acts

ADOPTION ACT 1994 - SECT 79

79 .         Duties of CEO as to adoption information services

        (1)         The CEO is to establish and maintain services to — 

            (a)         facilitate the exchange of identifying and non-identifying information between the parties to an adoption and their relatives in accordance with this Act;

            (b)         obtain and preserve information about the parties to an adoption, including medical information in accordance with this Act;

            (c)         provide information and counselling to persons who are parties to an adoption plan and to parties to adoptions and their relatives in relation to their rights and responsibilities under this Act;

            (d)         provide mediation in — 

                  (i)         matters arising between persons who are parties to an adoption or an adoption plan; or

                  (ii)         negotiations of parties to an adoption as to those parties’ wishes in relation to contact between them;

            (e)         assist parties to an adoption to identify or contact the other parties to the adoption in accordance with this Act;

            (f)         provide the means for the parties to an adoption to leave messages for each other, subject to — 

                  (i)         the provisions of any contact veto in relation to the party for whom the message is intended; and

                  (ii)         the regulations;

            (g)         coordinate the collation, preservation and access requirements of this Part as to information and documents held by the CEO, private adoption agencies, other adoption organisations, the Court and the Registrar;

            (h)         develop and supervise the implementation of codes of practice in relation to — 

                  (i)         the release of identifying or non-identifying information under this Act;

                  (ii)         contacting a party to an adoption on behalf of another person; or

                  (iii)         the mediation of disputes between the parties to an adoption or an adoption plan, or negotiations of parties to an adoption as to those parties’ wishes in relation to contact between them;

                  (i)         conduct training courses for contact and mediation licensees; and

            (j)         inform the public, by way of notices or advertisements, of the CEO’s functions under this Act.

        (2)         The CEO is to ensure that the services as to information, counselling and mediation mentioned in subsection (1) are available on the request of parties to adoptions or their relatives — 

            (a)         before the release of identifying information under this Part; or

            (b)         before the registration of a contact veto.

        (3)         The CEO is not to release identifying information under this Act to a person whose access to the information is the subject of an information veto that will become, or became, ineffective because of the operation of section 59(2) of the Adoption Amendment Act (No. 2) 2003 unless —

            (a)         the person attends an interview with an officer of the Department; and

            (b)         all the parties to the adoption and their relatives have been provided with the information, counselling and mediation that the CEO thinks is necessary in the particular case.

        [Section 79 amended by No. 40 of 1998 s. 6(5); No. 8 of 2003 s. 42; No. 34 of 2004 s. 251.]