Status of Children Act 1969, ss 5, 8

Paternity can be presumed, recognised or proven in the following ways:

• if a man is married to the child’s mother (or was married to child’s mother and the marriage ended within the 10 months before the child was born), there is a “legal presumption” that he is the father, meaning the court assumes this to be true
• if a man is named on the child’s birth certificate as the father of the child
• if the mother and a man sign an Acknowledgement of Paternity
• if a court makes a Paternity Order stating that a man is the father of a child
• if the Family Court or the High Court makes a declaration of paternity that says that a man is the father of a child.

Note:  A declaration of paternity is the only way of conclusively proving paternity. This means that the other methods of proving paternity can be challenged in court.

Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 2021, ss 12, 20

Generally, both parents of a child must notify the Registrar-General of Births, Deaths and Marriages of a child’s birth. However, notification of the birth may be given by one parent if:

• the other parent is dead, missing, unknown, not of sound mind, or unable to do so because of a medical condition,
• jointly giving notification of the birth would cause unnecessary distress to either of the parents,
• the other parent is overseas and cannot be contacted within a reasonable time, or
• the mother had the child alone using assisted reproductive technology.

The Registrar must include the information about both parents who sign the birth registration form on the child’s birth certificate.

The Registrar must include information about a parent who did not sign the birth registration form if:

• the Registrar is satisfied the information entered by the parent who notified the birth in fact relates to the child’s other parent; or
• the information relates to the child’s father and the man has either been:
  • declared by the Family Court or High Court to be the child’s father,
  • declared to be the child’s father in a Paternity Order made by the Family Court, or
  • appointed or declared a guardian of the child under section 19 or 20 the Care of Children Act; or
• a person has requested that the information be included and the Registrar-General is satisfied that the person making the request is a parent of the child and/or that the other parent does not dispute the information’s accuracy.