Originally Posted by
john_tullamarine
of your full birth certificate
I needed one recently. The old one which my parents got shortly after my arrival didn't pass muster because it didn't have a current ID number on it. Had to put hand into pocket etc.
When the new one arrived, it had a few photostat items from the old one and the required new ID number on a flashier bit of paper without all the tears of the old one. Rip off ? Sure 'nuff !
One of my brothers was recently required to go through the process of changing his name to … his (same) name.
Our parents divorced when we were children. Our mother then remarried and we ‘automatically’ took on the surname of our stepfather (as was the societal ‘norm’ back then) ‘McKenzie’.
We then served in the RAAF with the surname McKenzie. He as pilot, me as a techo. Access to dangerous ADF stuff. Security clearances required. We were even posted to the same Squadron for a couple of years.
He then peeled off to civvy heavy metal and me to the legal profession. Every passport, pilot licence, driver licence, Medicare card, credit card, bank account, phone account (and in my case, every ASIC and national security clearance application as a civvy) etc, etc - All of them with the surname “McKenzie”.
Then, some latter day Sherlock Holmeses detected that the surname of our father on our birth certificates is not “McKenzie”. My brother was told that he had to go to NSW Births Deaths and Marriages to change his name to his name (we were both born in NSW). Being that he has a slightly higher tolerance level for meaningless bureaucracy than I do, he did that. And of course it made perfect sense to the bureaucrats to whom he submitted the paperwork. Congratulations bro: Your name is now your name!
However, I refused. The solution? Could I produce my marriage certificate issued by ACT Births Deaths and Marriages? Turns out I could. Turns out anyone can apply for anyone’s ACT marriage certificate online, without producing any ID. And on the basis of that document, which was obviously issued with me as hubby surname McKenzie despite what my birth certificate says, my latest ASIC was issued.
(Truth be told, my brother and I were always planning on striking a blow to the heart of western democracy, by reverting to our birth names in our 60s and then pelting the Parliament with marshmallows, rather than taking one of thousands of opportunities to destroy the place in the previous decades. But for the latter day Sherlock Holmeses having exposed us, we were nearly at the marshmallow stockpiling stage of our evil plan. You should now all sleep more soundly at night.)