Safe Haven Legislation

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:45): I bring a sober topic to the attention of the council this afternoon, but it is nonetheless very important. At the end of November last year, a baby boy was abandoned in a drain and left for up to five days before passers-by discovered him, after hearing what they thought were the cries of a wounded cat. The baby was dehydrated and malnourished, but thankfully he was alive. His 30-year-old mother, who had no criminal history up to that point, was charged with attempted murder.

Within a week, the body of another baby was found buried in a shallow grave on a popular Sydney beach. The baby was in such a state of decomposition that an autopsy had to be carried out to establish the cause of death, the age at the time of death and whether the infant was in fact a boy or girl. There was the case of Keli Lane who was convicted and gaoled for 18 years for murdering her own infant. The body of the baby was never found. In Sydney in 2011, a newborn girl was found dead in a shoebox which had been left near a block of units.

In our own city, here in Adelaide, in 2007, a young mother gave birth to a boy and left him to die on the floor of the bathroom of Adelaide TAFE. A year later a newborn died from exposure after being left in an Adelaide driveway. There was also the case of baby Joshua, who was abandoned on the doorstep of a house in Adelaide in 2003. Fortunately, in that case, baby Joshua survived and was later adopted. Sadly, infants in Australia are abandoned all too frequently.

This is not a situation we can just continue to ignore. It has been suggested that annually at least 12 babies are abandoned around Australia. However, due to concealment of pregnancies and failure to register births and the like, it is entirely likely the number is much higher. As I understand it, there are some 15 countries across the world that give unwanted babies a chance at life in the form of baby drop boxes, or so-called safe havens.

We have already seen legislation pass through this chamber which was introduced by the Hon. Ann Bressington to create a system which would allow for the lawful surrender of newborn babies so these tragedies could be avoided but also those who desperately want a child could be given the opportunity to adopt, which is incredibly difficult at the moment.

Unfortunately, attempts to get this legislation through have fallen on deaf ears in the other place. The government has refused to pass the bill, citing that their priority was on early intervention to assist mothers who may be considering not keeping their child. We do not disagree with that, but we should be doing both.

The then minister for education and child development cited sufficient mechanisms within legislation to adopt unwanted children should a mother decide not to keep her child. Unfortunately, this attitude is not consistent with anecdotal evidence, which suggests that women who abandon their children are often young, disconnected from their support systems or unwilling to access support systems and simply do not realise that they are pregnant in some cases or do not know what to do in the event that they are.

Forensic psychiatrist Rod Milton notes that some mothers are overwhelmed by the situation. They may have mental illnesses or the like and in some cases simply do not feel anything for their baby. Andrew McCallum, the CEO of the Association of Children's Welfare Agencies in November last year, stated that baby abandonment 'does not fall into the normal child abuse and child protection framework' and that it really is about mental anguish and what is happening in some people's lives.

Accordingly, regardless of early intervention strategies, it is likely that mothers and babies will be failed by our current system. Obstetrician Michael Paech, the Sydney West Area Health Service's head of women's health and former Australian Medical Association president, has said that baby hatches would give women in a desperate situation the option of saving their baby's life. There are some mothers who are in a situation where they cannot talk things through, he said. They might not want the baby in their life but in most cases they do not want it to die, Dr Paech has said.

I am asking the government today to revisit this issue and to start a conversation about how we can prevent the abandonment of newborns. We do not have an appropriate support system at the moment for this most important and complex issue and, if the government chooses not to have a look at this issue, which in good faith I hope it will, then certainly I will be introducing legislation to do that.