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Nappies is for consultation
Who is parenting and how
And baby makes three (or four, or five, or two)
How the laws affect our lives
Current recognition avenues
Recognition Options for the future
What we favour and why
We recommend
Nappies Consultation:
Expression of Interest
MAJOR REPORT - OCTOBER 2002 |
 
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And then… the brides changed nappies
How the laws affect our lives
The laws governing parent-child relationships may be state or federal, or a combination of the two. Because our starting point is what our families need and what our communities want, this discussion paper will cover both NSW and federal laws when they impact on us.
Currently, NSW law deems the consenting husband or male de-facto partner of a woman who has a child by donor insemination (DI) to be the child’s father for all legal purposes. The donor is deemed not to be a legal parent for any legal purpose. Where there is no male de-facto partner, children born through donor insemination have only one legal parent, their mother. So in heterosexual families where children are born through DI the child has two legal parents, while in lesbian families they have only one. In neither case is a donor or donor-dad recognised as a legal parent.
With very few exceptions, a co-mother does not have a legally recognised relationship with her child under NSW or federal law.
Legal recognition of our relationships with the children we love and raise will matter at different times and for different purposes. It may, for example, affect who is entitled to receive child support from whom if the parents’ relationships break down, or whether a child will automatically inherit property or superannuation from a parent at their death. Areas we have identified as important are:
- Inheritance
- Child support
- Contact and residence
- Parental authority – eg over schools, medical care etc
So, for example, if a co-father dies, his child will not automatically inherit from his estate if he has not left a will. If a lesbian couple separate, there are only very limited and expensive options for the mother to pursue the co-mother for child support. A co-parent may not be accepted by schools or doctors as authorised to make decisions about their child. Some laws only cover (and are only relevant to) children up to the age of 18, such as laws about contact and residence or child support. Other laws cover parent-child relationships with no age limit, such as inheritance law.
It is important to remember that issues such as contact with children, responsibility for children (including financial responsibility) and authority over children can all be distinct, and some may be more relevant to certain relationships than others.
Being legally recognised as a parent gives rise to the presumption that parents are jointly responsible for a child under the Family Law Act (Cth). But it is important to note that legal recognition is only a baseline and does not necessarily determine residence and contact disputes about children under the Family Law Act. Also note that the Family Law Act can be used by any person who has an interest in a child’s well-being; they do not need to have a biological or legal relationship with the child.