The Maintenance Act Amendment Act 1965 (Act No. 54/1965) further amended the Maintenance Act 1926. Its full title was ‘An Act to amend the Maintenance Act, 1926-1963, and certain other Acts; to repeal the Children’s Institutions Subsidies Act, 1961, and to make other provision in lieu thereof, and for other purposes’. It was passed on 23 December 1965 and commenced on 27 January 1966. The Maintenance Act 1926-1973 was repealed by the Community Welfare Act 1972.
With the passing of this legislation, the Children’s Welfare and Public Relief Department was replaced by the Department of Social Welfare. The head of this department, the Director of Social Welfare, was responsible to a new Minister of Social Welfare. Under the terms of the Act, the Minister became the ‘legal guardian of each State child to the exclusion of his parents or other guardians, until the child ceased to be a State child.’