Ken Ticehurst (Dobell, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I too wish to speak on the report of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services titled Overseas adoption in Australia. Firstly, I congratulate the member for Mackellar for her unwavering commitment to unravelling the complex laws on overseas adoption. I would also like to thank the people who summoned the courage to contribute to the inquiry and share with the committee their difficult, and often painful, experiences. The resulting recommendations, if implemented, will strengthen our country’s overseas adoption programs. They will also provide a legitimate and more efficient way to give a loving family environment to children being adopted from overseas.

It is natural for families, and childless couples in particular, to want children. There are increasing numbers of couples in Australia and other advanced countries who want children but cannot have them by natural means. At the same time, the number of young children available for adoption in Australia is rapidly falling. Overseas adoption is a legitimate way of forming Australian families. Why is it then that a successful multicultural country like Australia has a rate of overseas adoption that is a small percentage of the average for Western countries? With around 370 intercountry adoptions last year, Australia ranked second last out of a number of advanced Western countries. Yet there are 5,000 Australian couples who want to rescue children in China, Kenya and Ethiopia from terrible plights. They want to save them from a life of begging, stealing, starvation, drug addiction and even child prostitution.

The committee found that these couples are being stopped by a system that believes adoption is unfashionable. A general lack of support for adoption—both local and intercountry—was evident in most of the state and territory welfare departments responsible for processing all adoption applications, the report found. The lack of support ranged from indifference to hostility. Parents wanting to adopt said they got the feeling that they were trying to do something that was wrong. People wanting to adopt are subject to long waiting lists, and the length of time required for approval is a direct result of the low priority given to overseas adoptions. State and territory intercountry adoption units are also underresourced. This contributes to the long queues for those seeking intercountry adoptions.

The lack of resources and support is part of the wider story of adoption in Australia generally. Following the unsympathetic adoption practices between the 1950s and 1970s, policy has focused on biological links above all else. Basically, because of the flawed forced adoption policies of Australia’s past, state government bureaucrats are opposing many adoptions. This has led to tens too many children being placed in foster care when adoption could well have been more beneficial for them.

The committee found that the Commonwealth has been very hands off in its approach to overseas adoption despite its central authority status. The report’s recommendations require renegotiating the 1998 Commonwealth-state agreement to improve state and territory practices, and a more active role for the Commonwealth. The committee seeks better harmonised, more efficient and more accountable processing of applications for intercountry adoptions at the state level and gives the Commonwealth greater responsibility for developing overseas adoption programs. The committee is also keen to see properly trained and resourced accredited bodies help process adoption applications to fast-track the system.

The committee found that the plummeting number of adoptions could be reversed by increasing the number of countries from which people could adopt and having a more consistent approach. To assist adoptive parents, inconsistencies between the entitlements provided to families for biological and adopted children need to be removed. A standout feature of the inquiry for members was the overwhelming love of adoptive parents for their children and their pride in them. I would like to again thank the parents of adopted children and the adopted children that took the time to address the inquiry.

The committee sincerely believes that the implementation of these recommendations will strengthen our intercountry adoption programs. These reforms will without doubt be in the best interests of the most vulnerable people in society—the children—who will face a promising future in a loving Australian family.

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