NSW Can I claim legal guardianship?

[Shhud1]

My 16 year old nephew came out as gay 6 months ago.
Unknown to the extended family, his mother (my defactos sister) then started ignoring & excluding him, for example, taking her other children out camping but not my nephew.
Mother then started making plans to move in with her new boyfriend in another area.
My nephew, looking depressed, told me and my defacto that his mum ignores him and he doesn't know why.
Offered the mother to have him move in with my family, so he didn't have to change schools, leave friends etc when she moved in with boyfriend. Didn't confront her about how she was treating her son.
Mother was ecstatic about the idea, she promised to pay some money each week, his education, etc.
The day that was organised by the mother to move her son to my place, we arrived to find our nephew at his house alone as the mother went camping with boyfriend and other children. Nephew had very little possessions.
Its been 4 months now and the mother has not visited her son at all. I message her and recieve replies of excuses and that she'll be over, but never turns up; but she's always in my suburb visiting other family.
She has put in my bank account very little money. It's like she's abandoned her son and we get the impression that it's because he is gay.
Does my defacto of 20 years and myself have grounds for legal guardianship of our 16 year old nephew?

 

[sammy01]

ok so forget guardianship - you've basically got it. At 16 he can get a medicare card, so really the only thing that matters is if he misses a day off school but even that, big deal, just write the note to send to the school.

The only two things that you cant do is get him a passport, birth certificate or authorise medical treatments in an emergency - so as in nominate to switch off life support. Let's not get too caught up in that....

My advice
1. Get mum to supply a birth certificate / offer to pay to get one. He will need it to get a drivers licence.
once you've done that
2. Call child support. I reckon and I'm not 100% sure but I reckon they will collect child support on your behalf. Oh btw, she is possibly collecting family tax benefit for this kid and she should not be doing that if he is not living there.

I reckon a visit with nephew to Centrelink to try and sort some of this might be a better idea than trying to do the whole legal guardianship thing...

 

[Scruff]

Being in NSW, he can get a copy of his birth certificate on his own - and he should too if he doesn't already have one. It will be very helpful over the next few years as he becomes more independent and needs ID when applying for pretty much anything.

He can get a copy of his birth certificate through Births, Deaths and Marriages. The cost is currently $58.