Page 2194 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 3 August 2016
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adoptions, especially after we debated the issue in the Assembly last year. I understood then that the Attorney-General had made a commitment to ensure that adoption time lines would not blow out.
In our office we have had one person who has kept us abreast of her adoption journey and her frustration with the delays. The last we heard, she had received a date for a hearing in the court, which was good news indeed.
It is very difficult when people are concerned for the welfare of their children and they just want certainty in their lives in regard to the future of their children. It is also a relief to say goodbye to all the processes and the bureaucracy when an adoption is finalised.
I understand that the processes to finalise local adoptions cut across a number of directorates. I was clear the last time we spoke about this that the Greens certainly do not want to see anything rushed around the issue of ensuring parental consent, as we appreciate that those things can take time and we do not want there to be undue pressure put upon relinquishing parents.
Of course, children come into the care and protection system for a range of reasons, and we support adoption as an option if it becomes untenable for a child to stay with their birth families. We also believe that prospective adoptive parents should be treated with respect and fairness. This is a difficult path to choose sometimes; it takes a high amount of emotional effort. If the ACT is going to have adoption as one of its pathways for children and young people, that pathway should be properly resourced so as to minimise waiting times for adoptive parents where possible, and certainly when it is just bureaucracy that is holding them up.
We support that every decision throughout these processes puts the child at the centre of decision-making. What is best for the child in the long term should guide the decisions that are made. Most prospective adoptive parents, however, want the best for their child as well, and in a local adoption situation would already generally have custody and care of the child for a substantial period before they would be finalising their adoption.
The ACT’s out of home care strategy, a step up for our kids, has sought to put in place a framework that builds long-term stability for children, with an emphasis on early reunification with a child’s birth family or a permanent placement within two years. Long-term placement can occur for children under two years old after a period of 12 months on care and protection orders, and by allowing an application for enduring parental responsibility after a continuous period of 12 months in care or a total of 12 months in a two-year period.
The strategy seeks to deliver a more nuanced and sophisticated approach to the management of children in care and seeks to respond to concerns of carers and foster families, and family members, and strives to achieve that delicate balance while keeping the best interests of the child.
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