The Governance and Administration Committee has examined the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill and recommends that it be passed. We recommend all amendments unanimously.

This is a private bill that seeks to amend the birth record of Annie Oxborough, by replacing the names of her adoptive parents with those of her birth parents. The bill would do this by enabling the Registrar-General to enter these details on Ms Oxborough’s birth record. This is not possible under existing law, which is why a private bill has been brought to the House. The bill is promoted by Annie Oxborough and sponsored by Chris Penk MP.

This bill would enable Susan Mary Cox and Scott Geoffrey Sinel to be recorded as mother and father on Ms Oxborough’s birth record. Annie Oxborough was adopted under the Adoption Act 1955 as the legal child of her adoptive parents, both of whom are now deceased. This bill would not alter the legal effect of that adoption order. Ms Oxborough’s adoptive parents would continue to be recognised as her legal parents. The purpose of this bill is to ensure that the birth record includes a true account of Ms Oxborough’s lineage.

Ms Oxborough’s intended outcome, as stated in the preamble of the bill, can only be achieved through a private bill. We are concerned about the need for individuals to resort to using private bills to amend their birth records. We recognise that others who have been adopted through closed adoption in New Zealand may wish to make similar changes to their birth records but encounter difficulty trying to do this through existing legislation.

We encourage the Government to consider legislative reforms that could prevent the need for using private bills to achieve these outcomes.

As part of our consideration of the bill, we have examined its consistency with principles of legislative quality. We have no issues regarding the legislation’s design to bring to the attention of the House.

This commentary covers the main amendments we recommend to the bill as introduced. Our amendments result in consequential amendments to the preamble of the bill, which we do not discuss. We also do not discuss minor or technical amendments.

Clause 4 of the bill would require the Registrar-General to replace the names of Annie Oxborough’s adoptive parents, as mother and father, with those of her biological parents. Clause 4 refers specifically to Annie Oxborough’s birth certificate.

We do not consider that this is the appropriate word choice. It is the birth record that registers any birth information, including adoption information. A birth certificate is the official document that states the information on the birth record. We recommend replacing “birth certificate” with “birth record”. This would make it clear that the names of Annie Oxborough’s biological parents would be added to her birth record. It would enable the Registrar-General to issue a new birth certificate based on the updated birth record.

Clause 3 of the bill provides the following definition for “birth certificate”:

• means the birth certificate in the name of Angela Joy Marshall issued on 16 December 1971 at the Magistrates Court in Auckland.

This definition, being specific to Annie Oxborough, is not consistent with that in the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Act 2021. We are concerned that the definition in this bill could cause confusion because it redefines an existing term used in other legislation.

We recommend amending clause 3 to provide definitions for “pre-adoptive birth certificate”, “post-adoptive birth certificate”, “new birth certificate”, and “birth record”. This would make it clear that the bill does not propose to re-define existing definitions and would only apply to Ms Oxborough’s circumstances.

We note that, when an adoption is finalised, all rights to succession are extinguished and the birth parents cease to be the legal parents of the adopted person. This means that adopted people do not have any succession rights in relation to their birth parents.

We note that this bill would not have the legal effect of providing Ms Oxborough with succession rights to the estate of her biological parents. This is evident in clause 5 of the bill, which provides that the amendments to be made to Annie Oxborough’s birth record do not affect the adoption order in favour of her adoptive parents.

We recommend inserting clause 6 to clarify that a new birth certificate issued in accordance with Ms Oxborough’s updated birth record must state that it has been issued in accordance with the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Act. We consider this would resolve any legal uncertainty.