Page 768 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 24 March 1993
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ADOPTION BILL 1992
Detail Stage
Clauses 1 to 16, by leave, taken together, and agreed to.
Clause 17
MS ELLIS (4.13), by leave: I move:
Page 7, subclause 17(1), line 5, omit "Director", substitute "Minister".
Page 7, subclause 17(2), lines 7 and 8, omit the subclause, substitute the following subclause:
"(2) A person is not eligible to be appointed as a member of a review committee unless the Minister is satisfied that -
(a) the person is not an officer of the Housing and Community Services Bureau; and
(b) the person has appropriate qualifications or experience.".
I remind the house that these amendments refer to the review process, which was debated in the chamber last night. The first amendment replaces the word "Director" with the word "Minister". The second amendment refers to the welfare bureau being excluded from the appeal process. I refer members to the debate that took place last night.
MS SZUTY (4.14): Madam Speaker, in my remarks last night on the Adoption Bill I suggested that the process needed to be fair and to be seen to be fair. This amendment achieves, through the establishment of an independent review panel, a panel to review the director's decision where the director refuses to include the names of applicants on the adoption register. This is a fairly profound decision that the director can make, and it is appropriate that an independent review panel be established by the Minister. This provision takes the decision out of the director's hands, in a sense, and out of the hands of the Housing and Community Services Bureau and places it with an independent panel of three people with appropriate qualifications and experience, as nominated by the Minister.
Amendments agreed to.
Clause, as amended, agreed to.
Clauses 18 to 44, by leave, taken together, and agreed to.
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