The regulation of children’s matters under Australian law has become a topic of vigorous debates and legal analyses. Thus, legal experts in Australia deem it wise to focus on a federal Status of Children Act in order to improve the regulation of various issues regarding the parentage of children. Per legal experts, it has become crystal clear that Part VII of Family Law Act does not perfectly fit to providing a definition of legal parentage for the purposes of Commonwealth laws in general.
The major objective of Part VII of Family law Act is the parenting arrangements for children when there is a dispute. Though the question of who is or who are a child’s legal parents is of huge importance, in terms of the Family Law Act, the considerations involved in determining what is in a child’s best interest in parenting disputes go beyond the determination of legal parentage. In this connection, the proposed federal Status of Children Act is aimed at providing a clear, consistent and accessible statement of the legal parentage of children for the purposes of all Commonwealth laws and for all courts that exercise federal jurisdiction. It is also expected that the Act will include all the existing parentage provisions in Part VII of Family Law Act. The last but not least, the Act is expected to provide a mechanism for the family courts to transfer parentage in surrogacy agreements.