Status of Children Act 1974

Where the name of a parent of a child is entered in the register of births in the Register maintained under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996 in relation to the child a certified copy of the entry purporting to be made or given under section 46 of that Act shall be prima facie evidence that the person named as a parent is a parent of the child.

An instrument signed by the mother of a child and by any person acknowledging that he is the father of the child shall, if executed as a deed or by each of those persons in the presence of a legal practitioner, be prima facie evidence that the person named as the father is the father of the child.

An instrument signed by the mother of a child and any person certifying that she is the non-birth mother of the child is, if executed as a deed or by each of those persons in the presence of a legal practitioner, prima facie evidence that the person named as the non-birth mother is a parent of the child.

Subject to subsection (1) of section 7 a declaration made under section 10 shall for all purposes be conclusive proof of the matters to which it relates.

An order made outside Victoria declaring a person to be a parent of a child, being an order described in subsection (6) or subsection (7), shall be prima facie evidence that the person declared a parent is a parent of the child.

For the purposes of this section an order made outside Victoria in another Australian State or in a Territory of the Commonwealth or in New Zealand has, so long as it has not been rescinded under the law in force in that State or Territory, the same effect as the like order made in Victoria.

The Governor in Council may from time to time, by Order, declare that subsection (5) applies with respect to orders made by any court or public authority in any specified country outside Australia or by any specified court or public authority in any such country.