AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY

Children’s Services (Amendment)
Act 1996
No. 54 of 1996
	
An Act to amend the Children’s Services Act 1986
	[Notified in ACT Gazette S312: 22 November 1996]
	The Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory enacts as follows:
Short title
1.  This Act may be cited as the Children’s Services (Amendment) Act 1996.
Commencement
2.  This Act commences on the day on which it is notified in the Gazette.
Principal Act
3.  In this Act, “Principal Act” means the Children’s Services Act 1986.1
Matters to be considered concerning children
4.  Section 5 of the Principal Act is amended—
	(a)	by omitting from subsection (3) “For” and substituting “Subject to subsection (4), for”; and
	(b)	by adding at the end the following subsections:
“(4)  For the purposes of subsections (1) and (2), the court, body, authority or person shall regard the best interests of the child as the paramount consideration.
“(5)  In subsection (4)—
‘interests’, in relation to a child, includes matters related to the care, welfare or development of the child.”.
Care orders
5.  Section 83 of the Principal Act is amended by omitting from subsection (3) all the words after “satisfied that” and substituting “an order of that kind would be more appropriate in the circumstances than an order of the kind specified in paragraph (1) (a) or (b)”.

NOTE
Principal Act
1.	Reprinted as at 6 February 1995.  See also Acts Nos. 25 and 46, 1995.
[Presentation speech made in Assembly on 26 September 1996]

©  Australian Capital Territory 1996