The Adoption of Children Amendment Act 1980 (Act no. 85/1980) was passed on 9 December 1980 and commenced on 1 July 1981. The Act contained amendments that sought to address issues that arose with two increasingly common types of adoption: adoption of step-children (adopting a child ‘into the marriage’) and the adoption of children who had been born overseas (international adoptions).
The provisions of the Adoption of Children Amendment Act 1980 provided that a child aged over 12 years would now be consulted about which surname she or he wanted to have – the surname of the ‘adopting parent’ or the ‘original’ surname. The court would follow the child’s wishes, unless the Judge found that would not be in the child’s best interests.
The amendments also gave the Director responsible for child welfare the ability to ‘supervise the welfare and interests’ of a child who had been adopted overseas (by parents who were not citizens of that country) for the first 12 months after they came to Australia.