Page 3631 - Week 14 - Tuesday, 8 December 1992
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What we need following the passage of this Bill is a stable environment in which adoption can take place. The adoption process needs to be accessible and flexible and to meet the needs of all parties involved, with a bias towards the welfare of the child. The final Bill passed by this Legislative Assembly should reflect these needs. This is why I too will be supporting the motion to refer this Bill at the detail stage to the Social Policy Committee. The Assembly's committee process is best placed to address the concerns that have been expressed about the Adoption Bill, to consider and reflect upon them, and hopefully come to an agreed position regarding them. This process, as Mr Moore suggested, need not take a long time. It is, of course, up to the committee to determine the extent of inquiry needed. We are not talking about major changes here; just the finetuning which should occur following the presentation of a Bill of this kind in the Assembly.
There have been two notable occasions this year when such a process of committee referral would have been helpful and advantageous to the operations of the Assembly. While not wishing to reflect on past debates, the Animal Welfare Bill required substantial alteration by the Government in the detail stage, and that Bill had been developed over a similar timeframe to that of the Adoption Bill. The Bail Bill will also require refining because of unexpected consequences relating to offenders apprehended in domestic violence cases; but, like the last example, if we do not get the finetuning right at this stage, we risk personal suffering for people who could become seriously disadvantaged as a result of the errors.
Individually sponsored amendments worked out on the floor of the Assembly today may not necessarily give us a coherent Adoption Act. If we need to change this Bill, or even if not, there needs to be a consensus reached on the issues raised as concerns by various community members and groups. Madam Speaker, I support the Adoption Bill in principle.
MR HUMPHRIES (8.45): Like my colleague Mrs Carnell and others who have spoken in this debate, I also rise to support in principle the Adoption Bill which we are considering tonight. I concede, at the outset, that it is a major breakthrough in this area in the ACT's package of laws. Adoption is an area of enormous sensitivity, in terms of both the way that governments and administrations deal with the facilitation of adoption and also the way in which it occurs in individual families. It is difficult, Madam Speaker, to satisfy all the elements of a complex equation which make up an adoption in any given case; but what we have to do in this Bill is attempt to find a solution which is in the best interests primarily, I believe, of the child and of all those involved in these arrangements to the maximum extent possible.
Adoption legislation has been tremendously controversial in other jurisdictions in Australia. We have seen such intense debate, such enormous division, in the community about some aspects of adoption in other States, that it is true to say that in some of those cases at least it actually has been harmful to the process of adoption. I must say at this stage that the process of adoption is one which I strongly support. It is a facility which we need to make sure exists in our community. Perhaps it is unfortunate in one sense; but I believe that, given human nature, it must continue to exist and it must be made available to those who feel that they need to take advantage of the process. We have the benefit today of other States' experiences in building their own adoption packages, and I think that we can, as a result of that experience in other States, now build a better legislative basis in the ACT for the conduct of adoptions.
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