5.1 In considering what recommendations to make, the Commission has thought it helpful to describe what might be called the “basic principles” of the Act, and consider whether the findings of the review provide reason to reconsider these. The basic principles, which are derived from provisions of the Act and background material such as parliamentary debates and the Report of the Willis Committee, may be stated as follows:

1. Providing to adult adopted persons rights to obtain their original birth certificate, and to information which would enable them to identify their birth parents, such rights being absolute in that their exercise cannot be prevented or limited by birth parents, or by other persons.
2. Providing to birth parents rights to obtain the amended birth certificate of their birth children, after the latter have reached adulthood, and to additional information, such rights being absolute in that their exercise cannot be prevented or limited by the adoptee, or by other persons.
3. Protecting the full parental rights of adoptive parents, and providing, in addition, rights to non-identifying information about the birth family during the adopted person’s childhood.
4. Protecting the privacy of birth parents and adopted persons by making provision for each of them to forbid unwanted contact resulting from the release of identifying information under the Act (the contact veto system).
5. Protecting the privacy of all persons by limiting the disclosure of information that unduly intrudes on their privacy, and is not necessarily involved in giving effect to the information rights created by the Act.
6. Providing to members of the family, on a discretionary basis, information relating to a deceased adopted person or birth parent.
7. Facilitating reunions between adopted persons, birth parents, and other people approved by the Director-General of Community Services, where those persons have indicated their desire for such reunions.

5.3 Secondly, the Commission considered whether the experience under the Act was markedly different in any important way from what Parliament expected. It is possible that the number of persons who do not know they are adopted is somewhat higher than anticipated, (although this remains difficult to estimate). The resistance to the Act by adoptive parents, and the size of the minority of adoptees who are opposed may be a little higher than anticipated. Compliance with the contact veto system, on the other hand, is probably somewhat higher than anticipated. With these qualifications, which the commission believes do not justify any reconsideration of the basic principles, the Act has functioned very much as expected.

5.4 Thirdly, the Commission considered whether experience in other jurisdictions with similar laws gave any cause for concern. It did not. Available evidence tends to confirm the experience in New South Wales, and to the extent that it is relevant, to support the basic principles of the NSW legislation. Recent legislation in other Australian jurisdiction deals variously with the rights to post-adoption information and contact, and may find in the future lead to new evidence about the respective merits of different legislation approaches. At this stage, however, the evidence does not provide grounds for concluding that any of these various approaches would better serve that interests of people involved in adoption in New South Wales that the existing legislation.

5.5 Fourthly, the Commission considered whether any arguments addressed to it during the review indicated a need for reconsideration. Again, it concluded in the negative. The arguments and submissions made to the Commission, while very helpful and informative, did not raise any matters or points of view which had not been previously considered. The Report, while not reopening the whole debate about such laws, deals with some of the arguments advanced against the information rights under the Act. These include aguments that it violates privacy, and that it is unacceptable retrospective legislation. The Commission's conclusion, in summary, was that these are important matter for consideration, but not decisive arguments against the basic principles of the Act. The legislation represents at least, one of a number of acceptable legislative approaches to a very difficult problem, and a reasonable adjustment of the often conglicting interests involved. The Commission therefore does not recommend any change in the basic principles of the Act.

5.6 Althought the arguments against the information rights have not presuaded the Commission that the Act need fundamental modification, they have drawn attention powerfully to the real distress and anxiety caused to many adoptive parents, a significant number of adoptees, and some birth parents and members of the various families involved. The Commission considers that, consistently with the basic principles of the Act, some modification of law and practice might address these interests and concerns, and accordingly the Commission has made three major recommendations to this effect.