Hi pgs,
Welcome to Rootschat, it's the best online place for help with your family history.
You write that you are looking for Australian birth records for living people. Australia is a federation, so each of its six states and two territories have their own separate legislative authority. So each of those jurisdictions have their own parliaments. Among other responsibilities each parliament determines their own rules and regulations for the BDM registrations within their own jurisdictions. There is no central Births, Deaths, Marriages registration process. Depending on which jurisdiction depends on what access is available to members of the general public for BDM records.
For example, I am in New South Wales, born here, married here, and not yet dead. My birth was registered, so too my marriage. Yet, members of the general public cannot gain access to the registration of either of those two events, simply because the NSW laws restricts/limits access to the BDM registrations. I can have confidence that my birth certificate can be used by me for ID for my Australian passport, and so too my marriage certificate as it is proof of my change of name.
Access is not available to the general public if
the NSW birth was less than 100 years ago
the NSW marriage was less than 50 years ago
the NSW death was less than 30 years ago
Here's a live link to a sheet with summary info for each of the jurisdictions.
http://www.jaunay.com/bdm.htmlThis thread dates from 2006:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php?topic=368744.0JM