The Adoption of Madeleine [2024] NSWSC 496

Supreme Court New South Wales

Medium Neutral Citation: The Adoption of Madeleine [2024] NSWSC 496 Hearing dates: On the papers Date of orders: 30 April 2024 Decision date: 01 May 2024 Jurisdiction: Equity - Adoptions List Before: Stevenson J Decision: Consent dispense order made Catchwords: CHILD WELFARE – adoption – consent dispense order – where consent dispense order sought before application for adoption order – where father not identified – where reasonable enquiries made to identify and locate the father Legislation Cited: Adoption Act 2000 (NSW) Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW) Cases Cited: Adoption of A [2022] NSWSC 567 Application of MSC and CJC; re HES [2011] NSWSC 1071 Re C and the Adoption Act 2000 (NSW) [2014] NSWSC 1007 Category: Procedural rulings Parties: Secretary, New South Wales Department of Communities and Justice (Plaintiff) Representation: Solicitors: Crown Solicitor's Officer (Plaintiff) File Number(s): 2024/154663 Publication restriction: This judgment has been anonymised pursuant to s 180 of the Adoption Act 2000 (NSW)

JUDGMENT 1. These proceedings relate to the proposed adoption of a child who I will call "Madeleine" (not her real name). 2. By Summons and Notice of Motion filed 17 April 2024, the Secretary of the New South Wales Department of Communities and Justice sought an order, pursuant to s 67(1)(a) of the Adoption Act 2000 (NSW), dispensing with the requirement for the consent of Madeleine's father to Madeleine's adoption. 3. I made that order on 30 April 2024. These are my reasons. 4. I have been greatly assisted by the careful submissions I received from Ms Greenham from the Crown Solicitor's Office. Much of what follows is taken, with gratitude, from those submissions.