Page 1937 - Week 07 - Thursday, 13 August 2020
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continued commitment to working to share information with other jurisdictions, ensuring that children at risk stay connected with the education system.
Changes to our education system identified in the future of education strategy are continuing through these amendments to our legislation. I commend the bill to the Assembly.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
Bill agreed to in principle.
Leave granted to dispense with the detail stage.
Bill agreed to.
Adoption Amendment Bill 2020
Debate resumed from 23 July 2020, on motion by Ms Stephen-Smith:
That this bill be agreed to in principle.
MS LE COUTEUR (Murrumbidgee) (11.25): I rise today to speak in support of the bill. I may be supporting an amendment that will be moved later. I recognise that any amendments to the legislation around adoption are complex and can raise heightened emotions. That is because adoption has a very significant emotional effect, on all of those involved, that is long lasting and life determining. It is difficult to balance the needs of children and young people who clearly need safe, secure and stable care with the rights and views of birth parents, foster parents and adoptive parents, while also bearing in mind the impacts of past policies and practices of forced adoption, particularly on first nations communities.
This legislation is a positive step forward. It appropriately places the best interests of children and young people at the centre of decision-making. It makes clear a range of specific considerations that must be undertaken by the court when assessing those best interests. I was pleased to see that this specifically encompasses a child or young person’s cultural, physical, emotional, intellectual and educational needs and that, wherever possible, the views of the child or young person will be considered.
While the Adoption Act does not currently prohibit the adoption of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people, it does require careful consideration of their need to stay connected to culture, traditions and family. This is vitally important. Our first nations kids deserve to be given every opportunity to learn language and tradition and maintain connection to country. It is what they inherit through their birth family and it is undoubtedly in their best interest to be able to maintain that cultural connection.
Family and kinship are also, of course, relevant to non-first-nations kids. I am very pleased that the preservation of family is to be considered as part of this bill. This includes the child’s relationships with the people who form part of their family,
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