This suggests that families use the Guardianship Tribunal option where it is available. The table below gives the numbers of cases in each State and Territory. For a visual comparison see the Bar Chart below. Information is available in Table 3.4 Families are more likely to seek legal authority for sterilisation where the Guardianship Tribunal option is available. All sterilisation applications involve girls and young women with intellectual disabilities.
All applications are for hysterectomy.
Not all them have severe intellectual disabilities. 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.