Page 3076 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 16 September 2015
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Where we currently are is that the paperwork is ready to progress to the court officer to seek a date for the adoption. I have been informed by many that there are delays in this process at the moment and I can expect to wait around 2½ years as “other criminal cases take precedent” and adoption is not considered a priority by the courts. This is not consistent with the Government’s recently released strategy that is seeking surety and permanency for children is a priority.
This is alarming—2½ years for an application for an adoption order to be made by a judge is too long to wait. Everyday Canberra families’ lives are disrupted and impacted upon by these unnecessary delays. We have heard from the minister about the importance of early intervention with children to get the best possible long-term outcomes for those children, and I agree with the minister on that point. This delay in the adoption process is impacting upon that and it may well impact upon the best possible results for those children.
It is all very well to invest the $39 million into the new out of home care strategy that aims to promote significant increases in permanency, including adoptions. However, if, as has been reported, applications for local adoptions are still taking 2½ years or more from when they enter the ACT court system to be finalised and an adoption order to be made, to me, the strategy is not meeting its objective. The Community Services Directorate have done everything they possibly can but where the bottleneck is occurring is in the court system.
This is not a criticism of the Community Services Directorate. It is not a criticism of a step up for our kids strategy. What it is saying is that there are many families out there who are willing and absolutely desperate to adopt these children and give them the best possible life that they can. This will benefit those children, those families and the broader Canberra community. Why are we not facilitating that? Why are we making these families wait?
I have also been informed that the government pays $600 per child per fortnight to a family caring for a child while they wait for an adoption order to be made. On top of this $600 per fortnight per child the government also pays the child’s school fees, medical expenses including any operations as well as after-school care fees et cetera. Again, it is absolutely imperative that they do that but there is another cost to the ACT community. Once an adoption order is finalised that family will willingly take financial responsibility for those children. By stringing this out another 2½ years we are imposing a financial burden on the rest of the ACT community as well as impacting on the lives of those children and those families themselves. This all adds up.
It comes back to the way that the court system works. The government surely can see that there is a need to streamline the processes, apply a bit of rigour to what is going on in the court system, whether it is, again, an additional judge. 1 July next year is too long to wait. It is too long for these children and these families who are waiting for adoption orders.
In a letter that the Chief Minister wrote to a constituent just this month he said:
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