Director-General, Dept of Community Services v D & Ors [2007] NSWSC 762

New South Wales Supreme Court

CITATION : Director-General, Dept of Community Services v D & Ors [2007] NSWSC 762

HEARING DATE(S) : 4-8 September, 22 September, 16 October and 16 November 2006

JUDGMENT DATE : 13 July 2007

JURISDICTION : Equity Division Adoptions List

JUDGMENT OF : Brereton J

DECISION : 1. Revoke previous consent dispense order. 2. Dismiss application for consent dispense order. 3. Dismiss application for adoption order. 4. Order pursuant to Adoption Act, s 92, that proposed adoptive parents have parental responsibility for, and custody and care of, child. 5. Order that child have contact with birth mother. 6. Reserve liberty to the parties to apply for further orders in respect of contact, including orders further defining contact. 7. Order that in exercise of their parental responsibility, applicants may change child's surname to their own, provided that they retain her present surname as middle name.

CATCHWORDS : FAMILY LAW – Adoption – jurisdiction - whether court can make order allocating parental responsibility when court refuses to make adoption order - consent to adoption – grounds for revocation of a consent dispense order – grounds for making consent dispense order – whether serious cause for concern for welfare of child – trans-racial adoption – where child of African parentage securely attached to white proposed adoptive parents for nearly four years – where birth mother's consent subsequently declared ineffective - undesirability of child being raised apart from natural mother family culture and ethnicity – undesirability of disrupting secure attachments – significance of birth mother's parenting capacity – relevance of birth mother's wishes – whether adoption in best interests of child – whether adoption clearly preferable to all other alternatives - contact – benefits of contact in reducing sense of abandonment and loss of mother and culture – change of name – where no adoption order but proposed adoptive parents to have parental responsibility - relevant considerations