What it does
The Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995 (NSW) (the Act) establishes a comprehensive administrative framework for the formal recording, preservation and controlled disclosure of “registrable events” in New South Wales. Section 3 expressly lists the objects: registration of births, deaths and marriages; registration of adoption information and parentage orders; registration of changes of name and the recording of changes of sex; perpetual maintenance of registers; controlled access by government, private agencies and the public; issuance of certified extracts; and collection of statistical information.
At its core the Act mandates notification and registration. For births, s 12 requires the “responsible person” (chief executive of a hospital or attending medical practitioner/midwife) to notify the Registrar within seven days (or 48 hours for a stillbirth) in an approved form containing particulars prescribed by regulation. The birth must then be registered within 60 days (or 180 days where variations of sex characteristics prevent ready assignment of sex—s 16(1)(b), inserted 2024). Registration occurs by the Registrar making an entry in “the Register” (s 17), which is collectively the set of registers kept under s 43.
Similar obligations apply to deaths (Part 7). A registered medical practitioner must notify cause of death within 48 hours (s 39); a funeral director must notify disposal within seven days (s 41). Death registration cannot occur without a medical certificate, coronial order or equivalent (s 38). Marriages solemnised in the State must be registered by lodgement of the Commonwealth Marriage Act 1961 certificate (s 34).
The Act has been substantially widened. Part 4 requires registration of State adoption orders, recognised foreign adoptions and interstate orders where the person’s birth is already on the NSW Register (s 23). Part 4A, inserted in 2010, deals with parentage orders arising from surrogacy arrangements under the . Division 6 of Part 3 (s 22A) permits a birth registration statement to record that a child was conceived using a donated gamete; the Registrar must note this on the Register and attach an addendum to any birth certificate issued to the person once they turn 18.