Adoption Act 2000

An adopted person is entitled to receive (subject to this Act)—

the person’s original birth certificate, and

the person’s integrated birth certificate if a record of the adoption of the person is registered under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995, and

his or her adopted person’s birth record, and

any prescribed information relating to the adopted person held by an information source (including prescribed information relating to the adopted person’s birth parents, siblings and adopted brothers and sisters).

Despite subsection (1) (a), an intercountry adopted person is entitled to receive his or her original birth certificate only if such a certificate is held by an information source.

An adopted person who is less than 18 years of age is not entitled to receive his or her original birth certificate, integrated birth certificate or adopted person’s birth record, or prescribed information, except with the consent of—

his or her surviving adoptive parents, or

the Secretary if there are no surviving adoptive parents or if they cannot be found or if there is, in the opinion of the Secretary, any other sufficient reason to dispense with their consent.