House of Assembly Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1) 53 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Bills Statutes Amendment (Rights of Foster Parents and Guardians) Bill Statutes Amendment (Rights of Foster Parents and Guardians) Bill Statutes Amendment (Rights of Foster Parents and Guardians) Bill Second Reading Second Reading Adjourned debate on second reading. (Continued from 7 August 2014.) Mr GARDNER House of Assembly Morialta Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (11:29): I am very pleased to support the excellent bill that the member for Hammond has brought to the house. I refer members to the second reading speech the member for Hammond gave in introducing this bill, and I know that there are other members who will wish to speak on it. Unfortunately, we will not have time today for them to do so. When I was the shadow minister for families and communities, the nature of the relationship between foster parents and Families SA was one of the issues that was regularly drawn to my attention by foster parents, and, indeed, by those other people who took an interest in the care and protection of the children those foster parents had responsibility for at the time. The case that the member for Hammond has identified on the unfortunate death of a child under guardianship, when the foster parents, who had provided a loving home for that child, did not have the right to be involved in the funeral arrangements, I think is exactly the sort of reason that we have the opportunity to bring private members' bills. The department may have expressed the words that we would like to hear and they may have expressed the sentiments we would like to hear, but they have not given the right of foster parents to be able to be involved to a suitable level of the acknowledgement and celebration of their child's life. I commend the member for Hammond for taking up the cause of his constituent, a former mother of the year, to be able to ensure that those rights are enshrined in legislation. There is plenty of flexibility for the department, in the way the regulations are applied, to make sure that it works, but I urge all members to support this bill. Debate adjourned on motion of Ms Digance.