1Short title
This Act may be cited as the Status of Children Act 1978.
Bills and explanatory statements from legislation.nt.gov.au; second reading speeches from the NT Parliamentary Record (Territory Stories). Links open the official source in a new tab.
Bill homepage (legislation.nt.gov.au)This Act may be cited as the Status of Children Act 1978.
This Act shall come into operation on a date to be fixed by the
Administrator by notice in the Gazette.
This Act applies to a person, whether or not the person:
was born in the Territory;
was born before the commencement of this Act; or
is an infant,
and whether or not the person's parents have ever been domiciled in the Territory.
In this Act, unless the contrary intention appears:
marriage includes:
a void marriage and a voidable marriage which has been annulled by a court; and
a relationship between an Aboriginal man and woman that is recognized as a traditional marriage by the community or group to which they belong,
and married has a corresponding meaning.
parentage testing procedure means a medical procedure prescribed, or included in a class of medical procedures prescribed, for the purposes of this definition.
prescribed court means a Territory court, a court of the Commonwealth, a court of a State or another Territory or a court of a prescribed overseas jurisdiction.
proof means proof on a balance of probabilities and
proved has a corresponding meaning.
Registrar means the Registrar within the meaning of the
Birth, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996.
For all purposes of the law of the Northern Territory the relationship between every person and his father and mother shall be determined irrespective of whether the father and mother are or have been married to each other and all other relationships shall be determined accordingly.
The rule of construction whereby in any instrument, in the absence of expression of any intention to the contrary, words of relationship signify only legitimate relationships, is abolished.
For the purpose of construing any instrument the use, with reference to relationship of a person, of the words "legitimate" or "lawful" shall not of itself prevent the relationship from being determined in accordance with the provisions of subsection (1).
(1) If a child is born to a woman while she is married, the child is presumed to be a child of the woman and her husband.
If:
at a particular time:
a marriage to which a woman is a party is ended by death; or
(ii) a purported marriage to which a woman is a party is annulled; and
a child is born to the woman within 44 weeks after that time,
the child is presumed to be a child of the woman and the former husband or purported husband.
If:
the parties to a marriage separated at any time;
after the separation, they resumed cohabitation on one occasion;
(c) within 3 months after the resumption of cohabitation, they separated again and lived separately and apart; and
(d) a child is born to the woman within 44 weeks after the end of cohabitation but after the dissolution of the marriage,
the child is presumed to be a child of the woman and the former husband.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (3), a marriage dissolved by a decree of dissolution shall be deemed to have been dissolved on the making of the decree nisi under the Family Law Act 1975 of the Commonwealth in relation to the marriage.
If:
a child is born to a woman; and
(b) at any time during the period beginning not earlier than 44 weeks and ending not later than 20 weeks before the birth, the woman cohabited with a man to whom she was not married,
the child is presumed to be a child of the man.
In this Part:
fertilization procedure means:
artificial insemination; or
(b) the procedure of fertilizing an ovum outside the body and transferring the fertilized ovum into the uterus whether or not the ovum was produced by the woman into whose uterus it is transferred.
A reference in this Part to the husband or wife of a person:
(a) is, where the person is living with another person of the opposite sex as his or her spouse on a bona fide domestic basis although not married to the other person, a reference to that other person; and
(b) does not, in that case, include a reference to the spouse, if any, to whom the person is lawfully married,
and married woman, in those circumstances, has a corresponding meaning.
This Part applies to and in relation to:
(a) a pregnancy referred to in section 5C, 5D or 5E, whether the pregnancy occurred before or after the commencement of the Status of Children Amendment Act 1985 and whether or not it resulted from a fertilization procedure carried out in the Territory; and
(b) a child born as a result of a pregnancy referred to in section 5C, 5D, 5E or 5F, whether the child was born before or after the commencement of the Status of Children Amendment Act 1985 and whether or not it was born in the Territory.
(2) Nothing in this Part affects the vesting in possession or in interest of property that occurred before the commencement of the Status of Children Amendment Act 1985.
A woman who gives birth to a child is, for all purposes, the mother of the child, notwithstanding that the child was conceived by the fertilization of an ovum taken from another woman.
Where a married woman undergoes, with the consent of her husband, a fertilization procedure as a result of which she becomes pregnant:
the husband is taken to have caused the pregnancy and to be the father of a child born as a result of the pregnancy; and
in the case where the semen used in the fertilization procedure was not that of the husband, the man who produced the semen is taken not to have produced that semen and not to be the father of a child born as the result of the pregnancy.
In a proceeding in which the operation of subsection (1) is relevant, a husband's consent to the carrying out of a fertilization procedure in respect of his wife shall be presumed, but that presumption is rebuttable.
(1) Where a woman who is the de facto partner of another woman undergoes, with the consent of the other woman, a fertilization procedure as a result of which she becomes pregnant, the other woman is taken to be a parent of:
the unborn child; and
a child born as a result of the pregnancy.
(3) In a proceeding in which the operation of subsection (1) is relevant, a woman's consent to the carrying out of a fertilzation procedure in respect of her de facto partner is to be presumed, but that presumption is rebuttable.
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