Passports Legislation Amendment (Integrity) Act 2015 (122 of 2015)

Schedule 1   Amendments

Part 1   Main amendments

Australian Passports Act 2005

61   At the end of section 53

Add:

(4) The Minister may refuse any name or signature of the person that the Minister considers to be unacceptable, inappropriate or offensive.

(5) Unless subsection (4) or a circumstance specified in a Minister's determination applies, the name must be the most recent name:

(a) on the person's birth certificate; or

(b) on a notice given to the person under section 37 of the Australian Citizenship Act 2007; or

(c) on a certificate, entry or record of the person's marriage, being a certificate granted or entry or record made by the Registrar of births, deaths and marriages (however described) of a State or Territory; or

(d) on a certificate, entry or record relating to the registration of the person's relationship with another person, being a certificate, entry or record:

(i) issued or made under, or for the purposes of, a law of a State or Territory prescribed for the purposes of section 2E of the Acts Interpretation Act 1901; and

(ii) relating to a kind of relationship prescribed for the purposes of that section; and

(iii) issued or made by the Registrar of births, deaths and marriages (however described) of the State or Territory concerned; or

(e) included, by way of effecting a name change of the person, on a register kept under a law of a State or Territory by the Registrar of births, deaths and marriages (however described) of the State or Territory.

(6) However, a person may only rely on a certificate, entry or record mentioned in paragraph (5)(c) or (d) for the person's surname, unless a register mentioned in paragraph (5)(e) shows that the person's surname has subsequently changed.