Legislation to be introduced to Victoria’s parliament on Tuesday will allow adopted people to have both their birth and adoptive parents included on their birth certificates for the first time.
Under the current law, people who have been adopted in Victoria are issued a new birth certificate with their adoptive name and the name of their adoptive parents. Their original birth certificate is stamped with “cancelled” or “adopted”.
The only way for an adopted person to use the birth certificate containing the information of their birth parents is to pursue a discharge of adoption through the county court of Victoria.
Last year’s parliamentary inquiry into historical forced adoption, which found 40,000 adoptions were arranged in Victoria from 1958 to 1984, recommended the government introduce integrated birth certificates for those who want them “without delay”.
Integrated birth certificates have been recommended by several state and federal inquiries over the past decade and have already been introduced in South Australia, Western Australia and New South Wales.
Melbourne woman Cheyne Bull, who was adopted at birth in 1980, said an integrated birth certificate would allow her to be more confident and truthful about who she is.
“A birth certificate with just your adoptive family, to me, completely erases who you are,” Bull said.
“This will make it OK to have natural parents and adoptive parents, to have two families. It says who you are isn’t shameful, it isn’t a secret, it isn’t something to be legally erased.”
The 41-year-old said she always knew she was adopted but it wasn’t talked about.
“There’s a lot that goes on in your head because you know you’re adopted but you can’t ask about it and you don’t have any information,” she said.
“As a child, I had this image, it’s quite antiquated, of my parents walking through a nursery with all these cots lined up and choosing me.
“Then when I was a teenager, I worked in the deli at the local supermarket and I always used to think, ‘that person could be my mother’, whenever I saw someone who looked like me go past.”
At 30, Bull applied for her adoption papers through the Department of Health and saw her original birth certificate for the first time.
“It had my name that I was given at birth, Zoe, and it had my natural mother’s name on it,” she said.
She tracked her mother down on Facebook and they have since kept in touch.
“Finding out who you are and where you come from, it doesn’t magically change or fix anything,” Bull said. “I think there’s some wounds with adoption that are always there, but going through that, it made me feel more real – more part of this world.”
Bull plans on having some friends over to celebrate when her new birth certificate is finalised.
The attorney general, Jaclyn Symes, said the legislation would enable adopted people aged 18 and older who wished to update their records to access a certificate that “better represents their own story”.
They would be able to include their birth parents, adoptive parents and the date of their adoption on their certificate.
The Victorian registry of birth, deaths and marriages will begin work to develop integrated certificates, which are expected to be available by late 2023.
“We know we can’t change the past but we can try repair the damage caused,” Symes said. “This is something that victims of forced adoption have asked for – we’re putting their voices and wishes at the centre of this process.”
