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Waltzing More Than Matilda

~ Names with an Australian Bias of Democratic Temper

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Tag Archives: legal issues

Name News: Rebels, Angels, Stars, Storms, Struggles, and Flawed Heroes

29 Saturday Aug 2015

Posted by A.O. in Names in the News

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

baby name apps, baby name disagreements, celebrity baby names, celebrity sibsets, choosing baby names, controversial names, cyclone names, fictional namesakes, honouring, legal issues, nicknames, screen names, surnames, twin sets

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Picken Out Baby Names
A couple of years ago the blog featured celebrity parents Liam Picken, an AFL footballer, and his partner Annie Nolan, who had just had twin girls, Delphi and Cheska, sisters to Malachy. Annie has her own blog called Uncanny Annie, and recently posted an interesting article on how she and Liam named their children. Just for starters, I discovered that Delphi’s name is actually Delphine, but she is only ever called Delphi. You can also read how the surname Picken helped shorten their name list: Banjo Picken was never going to happen, nor was Cherry Picken!

Claire’s Controversial Name List
Journalist Claire Harvey, who has also been featured on the blog as a celebrity mum with her son Reg, has written a piece about names that she thinks are now too closely associated with a particular person. Intriguingly, they’re all female names. (Is Claire musing over her future girl’s list?).

She does note the recent fuss over Atticus Finch, who’s gone from first-rate father to flawed figure with the publication of Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. However, Claire likes the name Atticus, and can’t see any reason to get in a flap over a fictional character who lived in a time and place where holding segregationist views and being racially bigoted was normal.

I have been waiting to see if there have been any stories in the Australian press about parents anguished over the name Atticus, but so far I haven’t found any – all the angsty Atticus stories I’ve read have been from the US. I do note that so far this year I have seen four new babies named Atticus, but none since Go Set a Watchman came out last month. It will be interesting to see how many I see in the rest of the year.

She’s Not a Rebel … No, No, No
And more celebrity names: the name Rebel was featured on the blog in 2013 because of the fame of Australian comic actress Rebel Wilson. However, a few months ago there was a big expose of Wilson when it was discovered that her name wasn’t Rebel Wilson at all, but Melanie Bownds. There’s nothing unusual about having a screen name, but apparently it’s an issue if you pretend that it’s your real name.

Plus there was a kerfuffle about her age (she shaved about seven years off it), and her background, which was much more boring and upper middle class than she claimed. For some reason, one magazine took issue with the fact that she wasn’t a class clown at school, but instead rather a high achiever who was deputy head girl, basketball captain, and on the debating team. They almost seemed to imply her comedic gifts must be spurious as well.

Oddly enough, Rebel’s siblings really are named Ryot, Liberty (Libby), and Annachi (Anna), which makes me wonder if there is some information missing here – especially as several of the key points of Rebel’s life story have been confirmed.

Stormy Weather
After Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu in March, the names Pam and Pamela became more common, especially for baby girls born during the cyclone itself. This story looks at babies named Pamela and Pam, while another baby was named Charlotte Pamela after Australian volunteer paramedic Charlotte Gillon, who helped deliver her during the cyclone. A great honour for Charlotte, and what a pretty name. Meanwhile, another story reports that nine months after Cyclone Rusty hit Port Hedland, the Pilbara town had many babies with the name Rusty.

Unregistered Baby Name Heads to Court
Sometimes it’s hard for partners to compromise on choosing a child’s name together. Two years ago Ms Reynolds and Mr Sherman had a son after a brief relationship, and ever since they’ve been arguing over what his surname should be. Ms Reynolds says it should be Reynolds, while Mr Sherman prefers Reynolds-Sherman. In the meantime, the baby’s name has not been registered.

In cases where parents can’t agree on a child’s name, the law will step in, and a judge has sided with Mr Sherman, insisting that the boy be registered as Reynolds-Sherman, and referred to as such at all times. The judge says that it would be beneficial for the child’s welfare to have an identity reflecting both sides of his family.

However, Ms Reynolds is not satisfied with this decision. Apart from worries about how she’s going to fit his surname on his lunchbox, she’s concerned that if Mr Sherman ever abandons his son, the boy will be stuck with the surname of the man who deserted him. She appealed the decision, and the appeal was upheld by the Family Court of Australia. The case will now go back to court for a re-hearing.

The relevant justices wrote in their submission: a dispute about the name by which a child will be known perhaps for his entire life is a matter of real importance. Ever thought choosing baby names was a frivolous pursuit? The law disagrees! It’s a matter of real importance.

Like a Baby Name? Swipe It!
Hopefully you and your partner won’t argue about baby names to the extent that Ms Reynolds and Mr Sherman have. But to help you reach consensus, there’s a free baby name app that works like Tinder. You and your partner both download it, and connect with each other’s profile. After that, you are sent scads of baby names, which you can each swipe to like or dislike. If you both like the same name – it’s a match, and sent to your shared favourites list. It sounds like a fun way to get a baby name list together.

Holy Names in the News
It’s rare that a person’s name becomes a major part of a news story. But last month in Sydney, Steven Jesus was accused of stabbing fellow boarding house resident Christopher Angel; luckily Mr Angel was out of the intensive care unit in less than a week. The newspaper headline read: Jesus charged with stabbing Angel in a Sydney boarding house after a brawl of biblical proportions before victim’s Lazarus-like recovery.

It seems that even Mr Angel has had a bit of a giggle about the conjunction of names. The lawyer for Mr Jesus supposedly kept trying to say his surname the Spanish way, but Mr Jesus is adamant his name is pronounced JEE-suz.

Jesus is now in gaol awaiting trial, and has had an AVO taken out against him. And that’s a sentence you don’t read every day.

POLL RESULTS
Most people (73%) didn’t think Go Set a Watchman would affect the popularity of the name Atticus. 49% of people thought the name Atticus would become less popular for a while, but popularity would recover once the fuss over the book died down. 24% didn’t think it would make any difference, and Atticus would continue growing in popularity at the same rate. Of the 27% of people who thought its popularity would be affected, 23% thought it would steadily become less popular, while 4% believed it would become totally unusable.

What Happens If You Don’t Register Your Baby’s Name?

14 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by A.O. in Your Questions Answered

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

Australian Human Rights Commission, birth certificate, birth registration, birth registries, legal issues, Unicef

birthscommem_vicfauna450px

Recently I answered a Name Assistance problem, where the mother was worried that her baby might arrive early, and she was therefore running out of time to find a name for her daughter. I reassured her that as Australians have 60 days to register a baby’s name after its birth, there was no need to panic.

Blog reader Ingrid asked, what happens if you don’t name the baby within 60 days? Would the authorities take your baby away from you, she wondered, or would they name the baby on your behalf?

A very reasonable question! The main things to remember are a) registering a birth is free, so you don’t need to put it off until you can afford it and b) authorities must always register a birth, so no matter how late you are, they are legally obliged to register your child. Don’t ever think that it’s “too late” to register your child’s name, or you’ve “missed the deadline”.

I thought I’d have a look at what penalties are officially in place for those who fail to make the 60-day deadline. This varies from state to state.

* New South Wales does not issue any penalties for a late registration, and they say their role is to support parents during the registration process. However, you may have to provide more forms of identification, and the process can be longer and more complex. For that reason, they recommend you make an effort to reach the deadline promptly.

* In Victoria, the penalty for failing to register a child’s birth within 60 days is $1408 – although in practice it is almost unknown for any penalty to actually be applied. They can issue a court order to insist on a birth registration, or to alter one which is considered invalid or incomplete. Children who have been abandoned and their parents unknown will have their births registered, and a name will be given to the child (so yes, they can name the baby on your behalf, if they can’t find you).

* In Queensland, if you register your child’s birth after the 60 day deadline, you can be charged a $4.50 late fee. Queensland is the only state to charge for registration, and that’s only if you’re past the deadline.

* In South Australia, you can be asked to make a statutory declaration before a Justice of the Peace for a late birth registration.

* In Tasmania, you may be asked to provide extra information and identification, including a letter from the hospital.

* Western Australia says nothing about late registrations. They note that staff will help you with the registration process (as they do in all states and territories).

* In the Australian Capital Territory, you are given a full six months to register a child’s birth. They say nothing about late registrations.

* In the Northern Territory, if you do not register a birth within six months, it will be registered as “Unnamed baby”, and they will complete the registration process on your behalf, with what information they can find. This information will assist you when you register the birth yourself, and apply for the birth certificate.

It should be remembered that failing to register a child’s birth is a serious matter. The Australian Human Rights Commission states that every child has the right to a name, and to have their name registered immediately after birth.

Unicef released a report last year which found that a third of children worldwide do not have their birth registered by their fifth birthday, with the lowest registration rates in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Without birth registration, these children are the first to fall through cracks in the system. They are much less likely to be immunised against diseases, or to gain an education.

They are much more likely to suffer abuse and neglect, to be abducted and trafficked, and to become separated from their families during conflict or natural disaster. Without being able to verify their age with a birth certificate, they may be forced into child labour, treated as an adult in the justice system, conscripted into the armed forces, or be sexually exploited through under-age marriage or prostitution.

You might think that this is something that only happens in developing countries, but unfortunately it is a problem in Australia too. Just this year, a couple from Melbourne pleaded guilty to failing to register their son’s birth, and also pleaded guilty to neglect – neglect so severe that their five-year-old son died from a cut on his foot due to living in filthy conditions. The little boy had never been immunised, was not enrolled in kindergarten, and barely had contact with the outside world.

This is exactly what Unicef is talking about. While failing to register the birth doesn’t necessarily make you a neglectful parent, neglectful parents are less likely to register their child’s birth – and failing to register makes it easier to hide child neglect and abuse. Just as with the statistics from Unicef, this little boy wasn’t immunised or part of the education system. Not that those things are illegal in themselves, but it shows that the patterns identified by Unicef hold true, whether we’re talking about a village in Africa or a suburb in Melbourne.

That was an unusual case, but failure to register children’s births is a significant problem in Australia, leaving thousands of young people bereft of an identity. Many of them are Indigenous, and in rural or remote communities, but some are from non-English speaking backgrounds, homeless, or have parents who are drug affected, mentally ill, or intellectually disabled. Some have their births unregistered altogether, while others have been registered, but do not have a birth certificate – although registration is free, a birth certificate will cost around $45.

In a study conducted by Dr Paula Gerber, associate professor and deputy director of the Castan Centre for Human Rights Law at Monash University, the cost of the birth certificate was often cited as a reason for failing to lodge the paperwork. There could also be problems with literacy and English language skills, a distrust of authority, and the lack of confidence to handle official business. There could be strong feelings of shame stopping people from asking for necessary assistance.

Dr Gerber also believes that changes to the birthing system have played a role. It used to be that when women gave birth in hospital, they spent up to a week there after the birth, with hospital staff on hand to assist them with registration. These days you are discharged from hospital as soon as possible, and as you leave, handed a huge pack of paperwork, which can get lost or damaged.

Some are calling for changes to the registration process, so that birth registration and receiving a birth certificate is automatically done on the basis of hospital admission records. In Africa, birth registration can be done by mobile phone, and mobile birth registries travel regularly through regions: perhaps this could work better than our highly centralised system where forms must be mailed in.

The consequences of not having a birth certificate in the 21st century are dire. You need a birth certificate to enrol in school, and without one cannot apply for a driver’s license or get a bank account. This seriously hampers employment prospects, and if you do manage to find a job, without a tax file number you will be forced to pay tax at the highest possible rate, losing half your pay. Without access to a driver’s license, many young people whose births were never registered resort to driving unlicensed, which eventually leads to their imprisonment for traffic violations.

If you would like to know what it’s like to not have your birth registered, listen to Charmaine Webster, a Queensland woman who was born forty years ago, and has no official identity. She grew up in a family where birthdays were not celebrated, and her birth was never registered, even though those of her four older siblings were. Her older sister cannot remember Charmaine being born, and only remembers her being part of their family from the age of three.

Charmaine lost contact with her parents, who she considers to have been abusive, in her early adulthood, and hasn’t been able to obtain information about her birth from them. In her teens, she was able to work fairly easily by registering for a tax file number at the post office; however, in the last decade laws have changed, and employers are now fined for hiring workers who cannot prove their Australian citizenship. Because Charmaine cannot prove her citizenship with a birth certificate or passport, she cannot get a job.

She began asking help in 2000, when she wanted to get married; in the end a friend who was a Justice of the Peace organised the necessary documents for her. Since then, she has continued searching for answers, with each government department sending her on to another in a fruitless quest. She has become exhausted by the search, and watched her children get their driver’s license and start work while she can’t. She says that without being registered, you officially don’t exist, and when you don’t exist, you live in poverty.

So I think that has answered the question of what happens if you don’t make the 60 day deadline to register your child’s birth. Nothing. You just have to do it as soon as you can, which may be more complicated than if you’d done it straight away. If you haven’t done it by their sixth birthday, your child won’t be able to start school.

And if you neglect or refuse to register your child at all? That has been answered as well. You will have made it impossible for them to get a passport, a bank account or a driver’s license, ruined their prospects of employment, increased their chances of imprisonment, and condemned them to poverty.

They will have no identity, and no citizenship. Furthermore, it won’t be something that they can easily sort out for themselves as an adult without your help – help that they should have been given as soon as they were born. A name is the first gift you give your child, and registering that name is the first human right they receive.

POLLRESULTS
Question: What could be done to make birth registration easier?
Birth certificates should be an automatic part of the registration process – 21%
Birth certificates should be free for everyone – 21%
Mobile birth registries should travel regularly through remote areas – 18%
It should be possible to register a birth online – 14%
Birth registration should be completed before leaving hospital – 12%
Fees for birth certificates should be waived for the disadvantaged – 11%

Only one person thought that the system was fine as it was and didn’t need to be changed, and nobody thought it was a good idea for birth registration via mobile device to be made possible.

Thank you to Ingrid for helping to suggest this post.

(Example birth certificate from Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria)

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