The Court made adoption orders in favour of a long-term authorised carer who had cared for the child since birth, dispensing with the birth mother's consent under s 67(1)(d) of the Adoption Act 2000 (NSW) where the mother did not oppose adoption and had signed the adoption plan, and dispensing with the birth father's consent under s 67(1)(a) where paternity could not be confirmed despite reasonable inquiry over a decade. The Court was satisfied that adoption was clearly preferable to maintaining the status quo of ministerial parental responsibility or allocating parental responsibility under s 92, applying the established test that there must be more than a slight preponderance of considerations in favour of adoption. The adoption plan providing for ongoing contact with birth family was registered, and a surname change to match the adoptive family was approved.
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