Bills

Statutes Amendment (Rights of Foster Parents and Guardians) Bill

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 10 September 2015.)

Ms COOK (Fisher) (10:33): I am really proud to stand here in government and support this very important bill, and I acknowledge in the gallery Monica Perrett and the fantastic work she has done on behalf of foster parents.

Being a foster parent myself, I know how incredibly important it can be to be recognised as part of the life and the journey of a foster-child who, in some cases, for a very short period of time has been in your care, but also on many occasions for a very long period, and the recognition of their position within the life of that child from beginning to, unfortunately, what might be a very tragic end is so important for the child, the parent and for the community to understand. I am so proud to support the recognition of this within the child's life, and also its importance in the discussion around OPG (other parent guardianship), so thank you very much. I commend the bill.

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Minister for Education and Child Development, Minister for the Public Sector) (10:35): I too am delighted to support this bill, and I would like to pay tribute to the honourable member's work on this bill. He has been extremely persistent, which is one of the qualities we like to see, both in young people and in not so young people, and has also been extremely patient as we have worked through some of the quite complex issues that have been associated with this bill. Essentially, this recognises the extraordinarily important role of kinship and foster carers and then, specifically, also the other person guardianship carers.

We have far too many children who need to be taken away from their birth families. It is a cause of great pain to me and, I imagine, to anyone who contemplates the numbers, that we have a society where that is necessary. I have just finished signing 3,000 Christmas cards to the nearly 3,000 children who are under my guardianship at present; it is a very small thing to do for them. The importance of providing an alternative home for those children who cannot be with their birth parents cannot be overestimated.

It is highly desirable that children who cannot be with their birth parents are able to grow up in a family setting and, ideally, with people who they come to feel the parental relationship with. Other person guardianship is the furthest form of that where I am able to, via the good graces of the Youth Court, transfer my guardianship responsibilities as the minister to the other person so that the children living there are able to feel the security of being in a new home in a new family.

Very sadly, this bill, of course, focuses on the rare but nonetheless too frequent occasions when a child dies in care and how we manage that extraordinarily difficult time for everybody involved, particularly how, in funeral arrangements, we respect both the birth parents who have a relationship to the child and the kinship or foster carers who have taken that place and done that extraordinary work.

To have the other person guardianship recognised on the death certificate I think is extremely important, and it is part of what I hope is a growing message of how much I and the government value the role that foster carers, kinship carers and, of course, other person guardianship can play in making our child protection system so much stronger. I commend the bill to the house.

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (10:37): It is with much pride that I rise today to speak to the Statutes Amendment (Rights of Foster Parents and Guardians) Bill 2015. First, I would like to thank the Labor Party for coming on side because I knew that without the Labor Party coming on side we would not get this important legislation through this house.

There are a lot of people I need to thank, namely, the former minister for education and the current Minister for Education (the member for Port Adelaide). I need to thank the Attorney-General for his support; and, particularly, staffers Josh Vines, from the Minister for Education's office, and Alexandra Keen, from the Attorney-General's office. Their contact with me was vital through the negotiations in where to go with amendments to the bill. I think about nine different rounds of amendments were passed around between us because, at the end of the day—and the minister has already mentioned this—I had to be persistent.

Mr Gardner: Not to get the Liberal Party on side.

Mr PEDERICK: Yes, I was not very persistent to get the Liberal Party on side: they came on side as soon as I presented my briefing paper, which was great. I do understand the many complexities that were outlined to me in getting a foster-parent's name on a death certificate, and we went through the legal processes of the other person guardianship process. That also means it is a two-way street: foster-parents themselves make that lifetime commitment to the child. It is a stage between foster care and adoption—because there is still a link to birth parents during the period of other person guardianship—and I think it is a very important stage.

Through the negotiations, we were trying to work out a way for a foster-parent to get their name on the death certificate if a child died in their care. I think we came to a very successful result: the other person guardian can get their name on the death certificate. If the registrar is directed to do so—in accordance with the amendments that we will deal with en bloc in a minute—the registrar must include the name or names on the death certificate. It is not to take away from the birth parents, but it is an addition—and a welcome addition, I think—so that the care that the many foster-parents, guardianship carers and kinship carers give in this state will be acknowledged in the act when this bill passes through both houses.

I would like to acknowledge the members for Schubert, Adelaide, Mitchell, Bragg and Hartley who have spoken on this previously. I acknowledge the member for Fisher and the member for Port Adelaide (Minister for Education) for speaking today. I acknowledge the work that Families SA did in the background assisting us all in getting this through and I also acknowledge parliamentary counsel. I almost had them on speed dial too, dealing with the amendments, and they did a great job. I certainly appreciate the support of my colleagues in this vital legislation and I thank my staff as well.

Sadly, sometimes these things come about because of great tragedy and I would just like to thank Monica Perrett and Nathan and their family for their persistence in getting this legislation to where we are today—moving this bill through this place. The loss of Finn was very sad. It was three months after his untimely death that we introduced this legislation in August last year, so it has been quite a time. It is 19 months since young Finn died, but let's hope that we have made the world a better place for foster-parents and foster-children into the future. There is a lot of antagonism in this house: I would just like to think that we have found a little love in the world today.

Bill read a second time.

Committee Stage

In committee.

Clause 1.

Mr PEDERICK: I move:

Amendment No 1 [Pederick–1]—

Page 2, lines 4 and 5—Delete 'and Guardians' and substitute:

, Guardians and Kinship carers

Amendment carried; clause as amended passed.

Clauses 2 and 3 passed.

Clause 4.

Mr PEDERICK: I move my amendments en bloc:

Amendment No 2 [Pederick–1]—

Page 3, lines 5 and 6 [clause 4, heading to inserted Division 3A]—Delete 'foster parents and legal' and substitute:

court appointed

Amendment No 3 [Pederick–1]—

Page 3, line 7 [clause 4, heading to inserted section 38A]— Delete 'foster parents and legal' and substitute:

court appointed

Amendment No 4 [Pederick–1]—

Page 3, lines 8 to 11 [clause 4, inserted section 38A(1)]—Delete subsection (1) and substitute:

(1) A person may give notice to the Registrar that a person named in the notice was a court appointed guardian (other than a parent) of a person who has died at the time of the death.

Amendment No 5 [Pederick–1]—

Page 3, after line 15 [clause 4 inserted section 38A(2)]—After paragraph (b) insert:

(ba) include a copy of the order of the Youth Court of South Australia placing the child under the guardianship of the person named in the notice; and

Amendment No 6 [Pederick–1]—

Page 3, lines 24 and 25 [clause 4, inserted section 38A(4)]—Delete the definition of foster parent and substitute:

court appointed guardian means a person (other than a Minister) to whom guardianship of another person is given by the Youth Court of South Australia under section 38(1)(d) of the Children's Protection Act 1993.

Amendments carried; clause as amended passed.

Clause 5.

Mr PEDERICK: I move:

Amendment No 7 [Pederick–1]—

Page 3, lines 28 to 36 [clause 5, inserted subsections (3) and (4)]—

Delete subsections (3) and (4) and substitute:

(3) If the Registrar has received a notice under section 38A, the Registrar must include the name of the guardian of the deceased named in the notice in the entry of the Register relating to the death of the deceased.

Amendment carried; clause as amended passed.

Clause 6.

Mr PEDERICK: I move:

Amendment No 8 [Pederick–1]—

Page 4, lines 3 to 13—Delete the clause and substitute:

6—Insertion of section 85

After section 84 insert:

85—Agreement for funeral arrangements of child under care

(1) If—

(a) a child who is under the guardianship of a court appointed guardian or the Minister, or of whom the Minister has custody, dies while in the care of an approved carer; and

(b) the approved carer and the person who is responsible for arranging the deceased's funeral and for the disposal of the deceased's remains disagree about those arrangements,

the Chief Executive Officer may, at the request of 1 or both of the parties, endeavour to assist the parties to reach an agreement about those arrangements.

(2) In this section—

approved carer means—

(a) an approved foster parent; or

(b) a court appointed guardian; or

(c) a person who, under a scheme established by the Department, maintains and cares for a child in the person's home for the purposes of this Act or the Children's Protection Act 1993;

court appointed guardian means a person (other than a Minister) to whom guardianship of another person is given by the Youth Court of South Australia under section 38(1)(d) of the Children's Protection Act 1993.

Amendment carried; clause as amended passed.

Title passed.

Bill reported with amendment.

Third Reading

Mr PEDERICK (Hammond) (10:46): I move:

That this bill be now read a third time.

Once again, I would like to thank everyone who has been involved with this. It has taken some dogged persistence, but it goes to show that from opposition, when you have good legislation and you keep putting your case, you can get it through. My thanks go to everyone on my side of the house and to the Labor Party as a whole because, as I said earlier, it had to go past the Labor Party to get this up.

I sincerely thank everyone who has been involved, but I did not mention in my previous commentary what can happen in the funeral arrangements of a child who may die under foster care, kinship care or under guardianship. If there is a dispute between the carers and the birth parents, the chief executive of the department may get involved to mediate in that very sad time of a child's passing in the care of a foster parent. We had to do some work on getting that wording right. It does allow a little bit of flexibility still, but it is huge.

As I said earlier, if it were not for the persistence of Monica, her husband, Nathan, and their family, we would not be here today, and I certainly thank them for their doggedness in getting here today. I thank minister Rau, minister Close, their staff and families once again that we have got here and that we have seen some good—which sometimes people do not see come out of this place; they see a lot of antagonism, which is our Westminster system, and that is how it works. I think we have achieved something that does show that you can find a little love in this place. I commend the bill to the house.

Bill read a third time and passed.