Health Minister Dr Ifereimi Waqainabete says the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Amendment Bill and the other two bills being debated in parliament, does not take away the birth right of anyone.
While supporting the bill in parliament this afternoon, Dr Waqainabete says if you look at the three bills, they are consistent with best practices.
He further says he finds it very despicable that the Opposition would bring up the race card in this discussion.
Dr Waqainabete says what this means is to ensure a person who has multiple names will align to one name.
He says there is nothing sinister in this.
The Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Amendment Bill removes the requirement for a deed poll and requires a person who wishes to change his or her name to do so by applying to have the change of name registered. This has to be done at the Births, Deaths and Marriages Office.
The proposed amendment also reduces the age from 21 to 18 years for those that want to change their name.
It also seeks to amend the Act to permit the mother of a child born alive or stillborn in Fiji to register her child and to give her equal status as that of the father of the child. At the moment, only the father of a child may register the child at first and the mother of the child may only register her child if the father of the child is deceased, ill, absent or is unable to register the child.
