The girls and young women are aged between 10 - 17 years. The legal commentary and judgments on sterilisation cases in Australia have concentrated on the girls and young women with little or no reference to their family circumstances. The age range of the siblings is from 2 - 34 years. The written reports on the court and tribunal files provide little information about the types of services they use. No applications for sterilisation are made by residential facilities, community-based agencies or statutory guardians.
All approvals are for hysterectomy.
In one case where the young woman resided in community based accommodation and had regular contact with her family the application was approved. Where parents had rare or no contact with the girl or young woman the sterilisation was not authorised by either the Family Court or Guardianship Tribunals. For example, where parents have rare or no contact with the young woman the sterilisation is not approved in either the Family Court or Guardianship Tribunals. It is a defining feature in Family Court cases because all other sterilisation applications are approved. The child had no concept of their wishes and no feelings about whether their wishes were met or not.