Page 694 - Week 03 - Tuesday, 23 March 1993
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Unfortunately, because the committee felt, I think rightly, that there was very little we could do, it will not solve the problems of people who do not know about their adoptive status. Ms Ellis and Ms Szuty have already addressed that issue, but it certainly is a very vexing one.
I would like very much to thank Greg McIntosh for working above and beyond the call of duty on this report. It was done under extreme difficulties because of the timeframe but also because a number of the members were not available for quite long periods of time.
MRS GRASSBY (9.41): Madam Speaker, I found the time I spent on the Social Policy Committee inquiry into the Adoption Bill most educational from the point of view of the number of groups who not only put in submissions for the public hearings but also attended the hearings and put their points of view. It was obvious that many of these groups were unhappy that the Bill had been held up, denying many birth mothers and their children the opportunity to find each other before Christmas. This part of the inquiry, I am afraid to say, really made me feel very sad.
Madam Speaker, I am happy today to know that the Bill, with very few changes, will be going through the house tonight. However, I feel that the publicity that the committee's report has attracted in the last few days is very unfortunate. Somewhere along the way the idea has been given that children are a commodity and should be given to anyone who wishes to have them. As an Assembly we are not here to make people happy by giving them a child. We are here for the child in the act of adoption, and thus the welfare of the child must come first at all times. Headline grabbing tactics by members of this Assembly are of no benefit to the children. If Ms Szuty feels very seriously about the rights of homosexuals to adopt children, then she should put an amendment to the Bill which would allow for homosexuals to adopt.
Madam Speaker, there were members of the community who at the public hearing made the point that there were millions of children around the world that could be adopted in Australia. Again, they have misunderstood what the Bill is all about. I would be very unhappy to see money being made by organisations or persons in what is virtually the selling of children. I believe, as was put by the department, that children should be kept with their birth mothers where possible and, if this is not possible, then they should be put in the very best care as decided by people who have the ability to understand - best for the child's good, not for the parent that will take the child. Madam Speaker, we have seen in the United States examples of selling and attorneys making millions of dollars in the adoption of children. I would hate to see that happen in this country. I am pleased that under the Bill going through the house it will not be possible for that to happen. Madam Speaker, a child is something to be loved and cherished. After all, children are our future.
I would like to thank the members of the committee and Greg McIntosh, the secretary, who did a wonderful job in putting this report together. I will be very sorry to see Greg leave the Assembly, but I understand that he is going to a very interesting job on the hill. I am sure that he will be an asset to the Federal Parliament, just as he has been to us. I also commend the Minister, Terry Connolly, and his department on this long overdue Bill being brought back to the house today, and I urge all members to support the passage of this Bill through the house as fast as we possibly can.
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