ADOPTION OF CHILDREN AMENDMENT BILL 2006 Second Reading Speech

Northern Territory Second Reading Speeches

ADOPTION OF CHILDREN AMENDMENT BILL 2006

(This an uncorrected proof of the daily report. It is made available under the condition that it is recognised as such.)

Bill presented and read a first time.

Ms LAWRIE (Family and Community Services): Madam Speaker, I move that the bill be now read a second time.

The main purpose of this bill is to amend the Adoption of Children Act to enable the issue of full Australian birth certificates for overseas-born adopted children.

The primary document for a child to establish their identity is a birth certificate. Presently, the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages can only issue a birth extract for overseas-born adopted children. While an extract has the same evidentiary value as a full birth certificate, adoptive parents have cited instances where its value is queried, if not declined.

In December 1998, the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption came into force in Australia. The Convention provides for a cooperative framework between source and receiving countries, ensures international standards, remedies in the best interests of the child, and mitigates the risk of child abduction and trafficking for adoption.

One outcome of the convention is that it permits overseas adoption authorities to finalise adoption orders in the source country, and to require automatic recognition of those orders by the receiving country. China, and more recently Thailand, have chosen to exercise this prerogative. Prior to this, the typical practice in Australian jurisdictions was for the overseas adoption to be finalised in an Australian court, the adoption registered, and a birth certificate or extract subsequently issued for the child. Because some adoptions are now automatically recognised under Australian law when they are finalised by a foreign court, they do not trigger the requirements for birth registration in states and territories because there is no domestic order for adoption. As a result, these adopted children cannot be issued with an Australian birth certificate.

Last year, the Commonwealth House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family and Human Services conducted an inquiry into the adoption of children from overseas. In its report of November last year, the committee highlighted this discriminatory anomaly and provided recommendation 11 which advocates the following:

The … states and territories … amend their legislation for the registration of births so that adoptions completed overseas and recognised by Australian law will be registered and lead to the issue of a birth certificate.

I am pleased that the Northern Territory is the first jurisdiction to bring before its legislature a measure to rectify this anomaly. The bill provides for a birth registration system which applies irrespective of whether the overseas adoption is finalised in the Northern Territory local court, or under a foreign adoption law which is automatically recognised by Australia, or by way of a foreign court order subsequently the subject of a declaration of validity by the local court. The bill provides a mechanism which ensures the necessary birth information is entered into the adoptions register and this, in turn, is able to be linked to the register of births.

Obviously, an Australian birth certificate can only be issued if the source country supplies sufficient birth information. The minimum requisite for information for the child includes their name before and after adoption, sex, date and place of birth. I would like to point out that there may be a very small number of cases where some of this information is not available from the overseas adoption authority because of the circumstances in which the child was abandoned. In such cases a birth extract will be available.

Application of the bill will be retrospective to 3 May 1994, to cover all overseas children adopted under the present act. The registrar will have the discretion to issue birth certificates prior to this if the information is available and reliable. Birth extracts will continue to be available to those who want them. The bill provides appropriate procedural safeguards. The adoption must be registered in the Northern Territory adoptions register. This measure is designed to safeguard against the possible risk of parents of overseas-born adopted children in other jurisdictions who may be tempted to seek an Australian birth certificate from the Northern Territory Registrar of Birth, Deaths and Marriages when they are unable to obtain such a certificate in their home state. However, it will not deny former residents a birth certificate as long as the adoption was finalised by the Northern Territory administration. Also, the Registrar of Births, Deaths and Marriages must not register any child if that child is already registered in another jurisdiction. This is to safeguard against the risk of Australian double entry, and possible fraud.

Madam Speaker, this system will, for the first time anywhere in Australia, enable the issue of full birth certificates for overseas-born children adopted by Northern Territory families under foreign laws recognised by Australia whenever sufficient birth information is supplied by the overseas adoption authority.

The secondary purpose of the bill is to append to section 5 of the act, that section which defines the jurisdiction of the local court, a note that the Commonwealth Family Law (Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption) Regulations 1998 apply in the Northern Territory. These regulations give effect to Australia's obligations and entitlements under the Hague Convention on Intercountry Adoption, and already apply in the Northern Territory pursuant to the Commonwealth/State Agreement on Intercountry Adoption of 1998. This is intended as a courtesy reminder for magistrates in the local court that they have the power to exercise this jurisdiction in cases where it may be appropriate to do so.

In future, the Northern Territory will use the regulations to convert adoption orders from Thailand if anticipated advice from The Hague to Australia indicates this is necessary to remove residual Thai inheritance rights from such orders.

To conclude, this bill will enable the issue of a full Australian birth certificate for overseas born adopted children not to hide the adoption but to give the children a single universally recognised document that will affirm their birth details and their adoption to their parents. As a result it will confer dignity and equality of treatment for children adopted by Northern Territory families regardless of where they were born.

As I have outlined it provides a mechanism for ensuring that the necessary birth information is entered into the adoptions register and that this in turn is able to be linked to the register of births regardless of whether the adoption order is made and whenever sufficient birth information is supplied by the source country. In doing so, it establishes sufficient procedural safeguards to discourage non-resident adopted families and protect against double entry and possible fraud. Madam Speaker, I commend this bill to honourable members. I table the accompanying explanatory statement.

Debate adjourned.

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