Page 4304 - Week 12 - Tuesday, 13 October 2009
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incompleteness in many people’s lives. It is for these reasons that the government has acted, and acted with vigour.
So what is the solution? Current research suggests that access to information and the opportunity for contact with birth families in most cases will contribute to an adoptee’s sense of identity, security and overall wellbeing. Importantly, the bill will, once enacted, ensure that an adopted child has the right to know about their family background and culture, that a birth parent is involved in making decisions about their child’s future and that an adoption plan be drawn up that recognises the intentions of all parties in an adoption.
The adoption plan is presented to the court at the time of the adoption and nowadays most adoption orders will have conditions that specify arrangements for future contact between the adopted child and members of their birth family. Veto provisions in relation to current and future adoptions have been progressively removed in most Australian state legislation. If these provisions were kept, they would also become increasingly superfluous in the face of adoption plans that enable family contact.
There is a clear social imperative for removing these veto provisions and to ensure that the government’s policy intent is expressed through the bill to protect the rights, interests and wellbeing of all parties to adoption and to ensure that the needs of children who are adopted are of paramount consideration.
How are we going to implement this change? Whilst the removal from the bill of the option to make a contact veto is forward looking and is based on extensive research, I draw the Assembly’s attention to the possible quandary that this may present for those people who have previously sought a contact veto.
For the record, I wish to make it absolutely clear that previous undertakings will be respected. Each person within an adoption story has undergone a unique journey. The timing may not be right now, or even into the foreseeable future, for some people who have not had any contact or information about their child or birth parent since an adoption order was made. They should not be pushed into something they are not prepared for. But should they want it, counselling and assistance through the Adoption Information Service, to be renamed the Family Information Service, and a number of adoption support groups, is available for them.
In conclusion, I commend the legislation to the Assembly as a demonstration of the government’s commitment to supporting all members of the Canberra community who are on an adoption journey.
MS BURCH (Brindabella) (10.54): I rise to support this legislation and, in particular, the provisions it makes for children living overseas and in need of adoption.
Members will be familiar with the media stories about celebrity intercountry adoptions and the questions that are often raised about the propriety of these arrangements. Members probably also know at least one Canberra family who have wanted to reach out to a child overseas who no longer has parents. To be loved and wanted is a fundamental human need, and the right to be able to participate fully in family life is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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