Queensland Consolidated Acts

STATUS OF CHILDREN ACT 1978 - SECT 8

8 Recognition of paternity

(1) The relationship of father and child and any other relationship traced in any degree through that relationship shall, for any purpose related to succession to property or to the construction of a will or other testamentary disposition or of a document creating a trust or for the purpose of an application under Part 4 of the Succession Act 1981 , be recognised only if—

(a) the father and mother of the child were married to each other, or in a civil partnership, at the time of its conception or at some subsequent time; or

(b) paternity has been admitted (expressly or by implication) by or established against the father in his lifetime and, if that purpose is for the benefit of the father, paternity has been so admitted or established while the child was living; or

(c) a declaration of parentage has been made under section 10 after the death of the father of the child.

(2) In a case where by reason of the provisions of subsection (1) the relationship of father and child is not recognised at the time the child is born, the occurrence of any act, event or conduct that enables that relationship and any other relationship traced in any degree through it to be recognised shall not affect any estate, right or interest in real or personal property to which any person has become absolutely entitled, whether beneficially or otherwise, before the act, event or conduct occurred.

(3) Where the event that enables a relationship to be recognised under subsection (1) is a declaration of parentage made under section 10 after the death of the father, the declaration shall, for the purposes of subsection (2) , be taken to have been made immediately before the death of the father if the declaration is made in consequence of an application therefor made before the death of the father or within 6 months (or such further time as the Supreme Court upon application duly made in that behalf allows) after the death of the father.