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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-09-20 Daily Xml
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INTERCOUNTRY ADOPTIONS

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (16:02): I take the opportunity to talk a little bit about Chinese adoptees and their recent good fortune in having a situation related to their birth certificates overturned by the government. I will start by commending the government for seeing sense in relation to this matter and I will just touch briefly on what the issue was.

This morning in private members business I was due to move the Adoption Registration Amendment Bill 2012 of which I gave notice in the first half of this year, and I think we would probably have been dealing with it in July had it not been for the situation in relation to this chamber. I withdrew the bill this morning but, for the house's awareness, the bill had two significant clauses. One was an amendment to section 21 of the Adoption Act, that being in relation to recognition of adoption under foreign law, and it was a simple deletion of the words 'will be' and the substitution of the word 'is' in section 21(a1). The second clause was an amendment of section 41 in relation to registration, and that matter was consequential to the first part.

This situation that was presented to me by the group known as South Australian Chinese Adoption Support Inc. was that over the last 12 years as we have had intercountry adoption arrangements with China, there have been some 200 to 300 Chinese adoptees brought into South Australia and lovingly adopted by the adoptive parents who are now looking after them. Most adoptions that take place under intercountry adoption arrangements take place in Australia. The child is arranged through the two governments in agreement, brought to Australia and then adopted legally here.

Our current provisions have always maintained that a birth certificate can be supplied to a child of an adopted parent where the adoption takes place in Australia. However, in our intercountry adoption agreement with China the adoptions take place in China and so they are not covered by the clause under the Adoption Act. The Adoption Act enables Births, Deaths and Marriages to provide a birth certificate but it did not require that Births, Deaths and Marriages provide a birth certificate.

For the last 12 years, this group of 200 to 300 adoptees from China have been the only group of children adopted in Australia who have been unable to get new Australian birth documentation. This presents a problem for them later in life. It presents a problem when they are registering for school sporting events, when seeking a driver's licence or a marriage certificate, and a range of other things. Think about how important your primary source of identification, a birth certificate, is when you are getting those things. It is hard to get a driver's licence without a birth certificate. It is hard to get your first 100 points of ID. It is hard to get a passport and take overseas trips, as a number of these families have found.

This issue was first raised about eight years ago with the then minister. The Chinese Adoption Support group has been seeking to have this rule overturned with Births, Deaths and Marriages. Most recently, at the beginning of this year, the Facebook campaign started by this organisation. Parents were encouraged to write to their local members of parliament and to various ministers.

A range of responses has been received from ministers, most of whom have been passing the issue from minister to minister. It ended up with the Attorney-General, the Deputy Premier, whose initial response was to write back to parents saying that Births, Deaths and Marriages liked to record facts that had happened as they had happened and that therefore birth certificates would not be provided. This corresponded with the information provided by the department to SACAS and other groups over many years.

The Liberal Party's response when I met with this group was to consider the issue in our party room. It took us one meeting to agree to the policy of supporting this group in getting birth certificates to make these children's lives easier in the years to come. It took us a second meeting to agree to the bill, which I was planning on presenting this morning, which would guarantee that the birth certificates would be provided. We gave notice of this in the house a little while ago. During the last sitting week, we announced the policy to the media and we looked forward to moving the bill.

I am very happy that we received a phone call from the Deputy Premier's office during that week. Nigel Holden, who is the President of SACAS, the Chinese Adoption Support group, got a phone call from Births, Deaths and Marriages suggesting that they might like to come in. We got a photo of the first three adoptees very proudly holding their birth certificates two weeks ago. They were presented with their birth certificates during the last sitting week, so two weeks ago today, and they are very proud and very happy. One of them was having their birthday party on the Saturday two weeks ago and she was thrilled. She said that it was the best birthday present she could ever have had.

I have received a number of letters from the parents of these adoptees over the last two weeks, and they are absolutely thrilled. I thank the government. I am not aware whether there was a sudden change of heart in the minister's mind or in Births, Deaths and Marriages, but the point is that the outcome is a good one. These adoptive parents have now been advised that over the coming months a special form will be created for them, and that information will be provided through the South Australian Chinese Adoption Support group. All these children will be able to get birth certificates, just like any other adoptive child, reflecting their current arrangements.

The opposition is thrilled. We are glad that the government jumped on board. I note that Family First and the Liberal Party had both committed to this policy on the Chinese adoption website over the last few months. I think some of the other Independents had also given favourable responses. As I said a couple of weeks ago on ABC radio, 'better very, very, very late than never'. Nevertheless, we are very glad that the government has supported this group of parents and children.

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