The decision by the NSW Government to not adopt the recommendations of a NSW Parliamentary enquiry into same-sex adoption ignores the best interests of children. Already in Australia, the ACT, Tasmania and Western Australia allow same-sex adoption.
“An Upper House inquiry last year concluded that the Adoption Act needs to be changed so that children can benefit from the best possible care that can be made available to them yet this Government will not undertake to follow the recommendations of the inquiry.
“Rather than provide for the needs of children first, the NSW Government is being intimidated by pressure groups and saying they represent ‘community attitudes’ by refusing to implement the recommended changes. It is the children who lose out.
“In most cases in local adoption it is foster parents who seek to adopt the children they have been caring for. The Department of Community Services advised the parliamentary committee that same-sex couples are helping meet the need for foster carers and are providing care very effectively. If children form a bond with these carers and the opportunity arises where adoption by the foster carers is possible, then there should be no impediment to that in the law if the child’s best interests are met, irrespective of the sexuality of the carers”
“If the children are being raised in a caring and stable home, then that is what is most important. All applicants for adoption should continue to be subject to the full range of assessment criteria, including the need to be approved as fit and proper people to adopt a child.
“In 2007-2008 there were 125 adoption orders finalised in NSW. Of those adoptions, 73 were intercountry and of the remaining 52 local adoptions, 15 were unknown and 37 were known – that is the child had an existing relationship with the prospective adoptive parents. These included 10 step-parents, 22 foster carers, three other relatives and two special case adoptions.
“Given the small numbers of adoptions undertaken in NSW it is not an onerous task for DoCs to maintain oversight of all adoptions in the state and to ensure that all adoptive parents are acting in a fit and proper way and that children are being well cared for.
“There are already many children living in families headed by same sex couples and research, including that presented to the inquiry and to the Victorian Law Reform Commission, shows that a parent’s sexuality is not a predictor of harm to children. When safe and loving homes can already be proven to be provided by same sex couples, as evidenced by DoCS, the Adoption Act should allow this to extend to adoption as being in the best interests of the child.”
No comments:
Post a Comment