Australia: Adoption without parental consent legalised

“New laws enabling the adoption of thousands of children from the state’s foster care system without parental consent were passed in the New South Wales parliament on Thursday night, despite fierce opposition from community organisations to the “regressive” changes they say will have a heavy impact on Aboriginal families.

Aboriginal leaders and community members say the changes will lead to another stolen generation. Aboriginal children and young people make up almost 40% of those in the out-of-home care system.

AbSec, the state’s peak body representing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families and children, had taken out full page newspaper ads this week opposing the changes and pleading for the government to reconsider its approach.

“We are extremely disappointed that these harmful new laws have been passed in the face of serious concerns from Aboriginal communities as well as the child protection and community service sectors,” Tim Ireland, CEO of AbSec, said.

“We firmly believe the lifelong wellbeing and safety of Aboriginal children is at risk here,” Ireland said.

NSW Community Legal Centres claim the laws have been rushed through parliament with limited consultation.

“Almost 80 organisations and over 2000 individuals signed an open letter to the premier about these reforms, asking for the government to slow down and engage meaningfully with the community. These concerns were sadly ignored,” executive director Tim Leach said.

The changes impose two-year deadlines on permanency decisions and narrow the grounds for these decisions to be varied or challenged.

The NSW families minister, Pru Goward, said her department is “committed to keeping families together and we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that families have every opportunity to get the help they need to thrive.”

Goward said NSW “leads the nation” in supporting this form of permanency, and has set a target of more than 1,000 open adoptions from out-of-home care over the next four years.

“Unfortunately, there are some parents that continually apply to a court to stall the adoption process,” Goward wrote in the Daily Telegraph. “This is particularly destabilising for a child or young person.

“We are changing the law so the children’s court will be given the power to dismiss such an application in circumstances where the application is frivolous or vexatious.”

While the minister has said the changes do not target Aboriginal children, Goward’s department has published a “pathway to adoption of Aboriginal children in NSW”, which outlines the approach for caseworkers to follow.

“These reforms were sprung on the legal, community and Aboriginal sectors with no notice. What limited consultation occurred in 2017 made no mention of many of these reforms, and those that were raised were opposed by a majority of stakeholders,” Leach said.

“Best practice from multiple reports and inquiries suggests that ensuring access to early support services like housing, family violence and legal assistance is essential for stable families and healthy communities.”

Greens MP David Shoebridge has called the legislation “cruel”.

“Almost every single welfare agency, Aboriginal organisation, survivor of past failed removal policies and legal body has told the government that these laws take us backwards,” Shoebridge said.

“We are committed to working with all other parties in the parliament to reverse these damaging forced removal laws in the first 100 days of the new parliament after the March 2019 election.””

Adoption without parental consent legalised in NSW

[The Guardian 11/23/18 by Lorena Allum]

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