Ward v New South Wales Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages

In the case of Ward v New South Wales Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages, the dispute arose from an application by the applicant, seeking to amend the official register of deaths to reflect that her father's cause of death was due to a heart attack, rather than the recorded cause of death, which was listed as hypertensive cardiovascular disease. The Registrar declined to amend the register, and the matter was brought before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal. The applicant contested the Registrar's decision, arguing that the recorded cause of death was incorrect and that the proposed amendment was based on the most reliable information available.

The legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the Registrar had the power to amend the register and, if so, whether the Tribunal was satisfied that the proposed amendment was in conformity with the most reliable information available about the registerable event. The applicant contended that the Registrar had the power to amend the register and that the proposed amendment was accurate. The Registrar, on the other hand, argued that the recorded cause of death was accurate and that the applicant had not provided sufficient evidence to support the proposed amendment.

In its decision, the Tribunal found that the Registrar did have the power to amend the register, in accordance with the relevant legislation. However, the Tribunal was not satisfied that the applicant had provided sufficient evidence to support the proposed amendment. The Tribunal noted that the evidence provided by the applicant was not in a form that was readily verifiable, and that the applicant had not provided any expert medical evidence to support the proposed change. As such, the Tribunal affirmed the decision of the Registrar not to amend the register.