CHILDREN'S PROTECTION (LAWFUL SURRENDER OF NEWBORN CHILD) AMENDMENT BILL

Second Reading

Adjourned debate on second reading.

(Continued from 6 April 2011.)

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (17:14): I rise on behalf of the Liberal Party to indicate our position on this bill. We are prepared to support the second reading of the bill. The Victorian government is currently leading research on behalf of the Community and Disability Services Ministerial Council to identify options currently available to respond to the issue of abandoned and relinquished babies. I understand that this research will assess the options of the value of the baby safe havens proposed by this bill. The Liberal Party is prepared to wait and look at the outcome of that particular research. At this point, we are prepared to support the second reading, but we would like to see what the outcome of that research is before we commit to supporting the third reading.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (17:15): I rise on behalf of the Greens to similarly support the second reading of this bill and to commend the Hon. Ann Bressington for bringing this issue to this place. This bill seeks to establish for South Australians a means by which a mother can safely, anonymously and legally relinquish her newborn baby, that is, a baby safe haven scheme. Similar schemes are currently in place in Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Portugal and, I understand, every state in America.

Under this bill, babies who are surrendered would automatically be placed under the guardianship of the minister and registered under the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1996. Under the circumstances that will be introduced by this bill, the mother of a newborn child would not be liable to prosecution for an offence arising from that act should she relinquish that child into a baby safe haven.

The mother would not be required to provide identification information in relation to the child or herself. The mother is to be encouraged to provide information that may be of relevance to the current or future health of the child and to seek medical treatment or other support services for herself, anonymously or otherwise. I understand, according to the information we have been able to gather, that some 12 babies are abandoned each year in Australia, certainly in the states of New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia combined. An objective of this bill is to ensure that the surrendered baby returns to its mother or father or family, and certainly this bill does put the best interests of the infant as its paramount concern.

One can understand that there are situations where babies are abandoned and often left vulnerable, and we have seen some horrific situations where those infants have died as a result of that abandonment. That abandonment can occur in times of extreme pressure for the mother, and often that pressure can pass with time. This bill would ensure that that mother would not be forced into acting in a way that not only she would regret but could never be undone. It is a scheme that has the support of the President of the South Australian Medical Association, Dr Andrew Lavender, and it also has the support of Reproductive Choice Australia and notable feminists such as Dr Leslie Cannold.

As I have said, the Greens commend the Hon. Ann Bressington for putting this idea before the parliament. We sympathise with the opposition's contention that this is an issue that is being investigated in other legislatures, and I think a federal approach to such an issue should be greatly encouraged. With those brief words, we support the second reading of this bill.

The Hon. G.A. KANDELAARS (17:19): I rise to provide the government's response, which is to oppose the Hon. Ann Bressington's bill. The Hon. Ann Bressington introduced the Children's Protection (Lawful Surrender of Newborn Child) Amendment Bill 2011. The bill aims to help women relinquish the care of their infant anonymously and provides protection from criminal charges.

This bill proposes that the child is surrendered to a medical clinic or hospital and then placed under the guardianship of the minister. The honourable member then proposes that, if the mother or father does not make an application to reclaim the infant within six weeks, the child will be placed under supervision for three months before being put up for adoption.

It goes without saying that our government shares the honourable member's concerns for parents who feel that they cannot care for their children and, importantly, for children they relinquish. That is why, since coming to office, we have reformed the child protection system and implemented a range of strategies designed to keep our children safe and to better address the needs of those who are vulnerable. While we acknowledge the honourable member's good intentions, her bill will not build on this work or benefit parents or children in such situations. In addition, anonymous infant abandonment has been very low within South Australia.

I am aware that over the past five years the media has reported that there have been three newborn infants abandoned anonymously in South Australia. In addition, I am aware that the number of children who were abandoned to Families SA in the previous five years (the period 2005-06 to 2009-10) is low. The statistical details are as follows: in the context of alternative care, 18 infants aged under 12 months required a placement due to 'child abandoned'; the examination of the records indicate that nine infants (50 per cent) were left in hospitals almost immediately after birth; five infants were placed in the care of extended family members; and three infants required alternative care placements following previous Families SA involvement. The remaining record was not strictly an abandonment but parental inability to care due to substance abuse.

Analysis of the data indicates parental inability or unwillingness to provide care in the context of neglect of the child rather than anonymous abandonment of the infant. This shows that while most parents may have been unwilling or unable to provide care for their children, they did not anonymously abandon them. This fact makes it very difficult to justify the honourable member's argument for implementing a process for anonymous abandonment.

Not only have there been very few children anonymously abandoned in South Australia in the past five years, but I am advised that Families SA have found no research to support the suggestion that a mother is more likely to abandon an infant in a baby safe haven as opposed to other locations. Indeed, in her second reading speech, the honourable member acknowledged the paucity of research generally on child abandonment. She makes reference to mainly anecdotal evidence and advises that it is impossible to know accurately how many babies each year are abandoned here in South Australia or nationally.

I submit that the lack of research and dependence on anecdotal evidence is the most flimsy basis for drafting this bill. I also submit that it could be argued that the provision of baby safe havens could encourage anonymous abandonment of babies rather than having parents contact Families SA for support or to arrange alternative care for the child. Legalising abandonment is certainly not a solution. In the second reading speech, in providing evidence to support her bill, the honourable member also makes reference to two tragic cases in South Australia: one of a baby who died of exposure on a driveway and another where the body of a baby boy was found in a TAFE bathroom.

To build on the information and research regarding abandoned and relinquished infants, ministers at the Community and Disability Services Ministers Conference meeting on the 19 April 2011 agreed to Victoria leading work to identify options that are currently available to respond to the issue of abandoned and relinquished babies. The decision was taken to broaden the scope of the investigation from a focus only on baby safe havens to ensure that due consideration was given to all current options and legislative processes, and evidence explored that may support parents who abandon or relinquish their babies or support families to prevent this from occurring.

The loss of a child's life is tragic but we also understand when considering this bill that it is important to make a distinction between neonaticide, which is defined as child homicide within the first year of life, and abandonment. Cases of neonaticide are very rare in South Australia. As I stated earlier, in the past five years the media have reported only three cases in South Australia where the bodies of newborn babies have been discovered abandoned. In two of these cases, the mother was later identified. I note, too, that in an article on neonaticide in The Examiner in Tasmania in December last year, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Monash University, Mairead Dolan, is quoted as saying that there is no data to support the effectiveness of baby safe havens law in reducing the risk of neonaticide.

Another most important matter that needs to be considered is that the honourable member does not address how a child who was anonymously abandoned and later adopted could access the information about their birth parents. This is information which, under the Adoption Act 1998, other children who have been adopted would be able to access. For some children who never meet or know anything about their birth parents, this can cause long-term psychological trauma and issues. It can also prevent the child knowing the important details about their family medical history.

It is also critical to acknowledge the existing and very effective services already in place to support new parents who are struggling to care for their children for a range of reasons. Right now, if a mother can no longer provide care for a child and wants to relinquish the child, she can do so through Families SA. Families SA can also provide information, advice and support to strengthen parenting skills and provide the opportunity for reuniting with the infant in the future.

Staff, including high-risk infant workers and the Families SA Safe Babies team, are specially trained to provide intensive support to parents. The Stronger Families, Safer Children program, implemented in 2009, also supports vulnerable families and children and seeks to prevent their progression through the child protection system and/or the removal of children. It also provides reunification services to families where children have been removed. As of 31 December 2010, the program has received 414 referrals, with 1,115 children helped.

There is no doubt that the best practice for any child is a home with their parents as long as they are being cared for properly and safely. Supporting mums and dads to look after their infants is the best way to prevent abandonment and promote a lasting connection between babies and their birth family.

I encourage all those present not to support the proposed bill on the following grounds. Very few infants have been anonymously abandoned in the past five years. Families who have abandoned children to Families SA in the past five years did so based on parental inability or unwillingness to provide care in the context of the neglect of the child, rather than anonymously abandoning their infants. There is no research or evidence to support the viability of the benefits of baby safe havens or similar processes in South Australia, or that they would prevent neonaticide.

Establishing facilities such as baby safe havens could actually increase the number of anonymous child abandonments. By promoting anonymity, the bill fails to address how, if the relinquished child ends up being adopted, he or she could ever contact or access information about their birth parents. This bill encourages the separation of children from their families without any opportunity for reconciliation, and the bill does not add to the whole-of-government and non-government approach to prevention and early intervention where children, including infants, are at risk.

The Hon. A. BRESSINGTON (17:30): I thank all members for their contributions. In light of the commitment that I have received from the Liberal Party, I indicate that I am willing to hold off on the committee stage of this bill until the report has come back from the research that is being undertaken, as the Hons Mr Kandelaars and Mr Stephens mentioned, because there is a lack of research in this area.

I will make a couple of points. The first one is that low statistics of abandoned babies in bins, driveways, under trees and God knows where else is no reason to take no action. As I said in my second reading speech, one baby in a bin is way too many. We also know that the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare notes a significant number of marginalised women each year, and it was about 40 in South Australia in 2009 who did not access any prenatal service, hence their pregnancies go unreported. Now, they are the 40 we know about. How many of these women are out there who are in terrible circumstances? One can only imagine what life is like for them, if they do not have medical attention during the birth or after the birth, and they may well abandon those babies and nobody would ever know.

As the story of baby Willow in Sydney shows, that baby's body was discovered in a park in Sydney not so long ago. At had been estimated that the little baby girl had been there for a month before she was discovered. Research shows that 28 babies are dumped in Australia every year; that is Australia wide. But every state to do its bit on this, I believe is one of the most important things that we could do, not only to try to preserve the baby's life but also to try to assist those mothers who are, as the Hon. Tammy Franks and others have mentioned, in terrible situations where there are very few choices left to them.

This is not a sole issue about law, practicality, the bottom line and the dollar. This is about social conscience. Where is our moral compass? Apparently, we are way off north at the moment. We also know that Senator Helen Polley in Tasmania has been trying now for three years to have the implementation of baby safe havens in Australia. She has worked diligently with other groups. There are Facebook pages set up for exactly this topic. There are numerous websites also that are calling for some steps to be taken to give both the mothers of these babies a chance and these babies a chance at life.

I am disappointed that the government would just dismiss this rather than consider that the research may just find that the federal government could possibly assist in implementing this in each state and have pilot programs in each state that monitor what the results have been. We may just find that, rather than the fact that we have only had one or two babies in the last couple of years, if these havens are actually made available, we may find that there are more babies that are put into these havens than perhaps are thrown away and never discovered. That is a reality of what may just be happening out there.

As usual, we stick our head in the sand and sit there on our hands and say, 'No, we have only had one or two, so there is no real issue here. There is no real need.' This government boasts about its measures that it has taken to protect children, and I still do not see any evidence of any of that yet. I still do not have anybody ringing up my office saying, 'Families SA saved my granddaughter's life.' It does not happen. I have 680 cases of children who have, more than likely, been wrongly removed, who were not battered babies, who were not abandoned babies, but have been removed on (sometimes) cases of minor dysfunction in a family.

This government boasts of its record every time a child protection bill is put up. I will say this again and again, the first step towards change is acknowledging that we have a problem. If we never acknowledge it, then we are never going to fix it. There is no political will in this state to want to do it any better. With that, I thank all members and I thank the Liberal Party, I know they have moved their position significantly on this. To be prepared to consider this bill after the research is in is commendable. We will wait and see how it goes. Thank you.

Bill read a second time.