Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I second the motion. I want to begin by supporting many of the remarks from the member for Wright, and I want to congratulate him on bringing this important issue to the attention of the House. I am pleased to see some of the recent moves on this in the other place and also the Turnbull government's recent decision to add Poland and Latvia to the countries from which Australian families might adopt children. I do hope to see more added as we go.

One of the great perversities of our world is that there are so many children in it who need a loving home and so many families who are looking for a child to complete their family. It is just incredible, really, to think about it—despite all of the thousands of people for whom intercountry adoption could help, in 2014 just 114 intercountry adoptions were made legal in Australia. I think it is probably a shared view across everyone in this House that there is potential to do a lot more good here.

I am really pleased to see the government going about this in a measured way, and the reason that we need to be measured is that we need to be up-front about the risks that are inherit in intercountry adoption as well as the incredible benefits that can come from it. The potential for human trafficking under the shroud of intercountry adoption has to be a part of the conversation, because it is real and there is very good evidence of it. I say that not to upset anyone or to upset any of the groups that are advocates in this area, but simply to say that we have to have a balanced conversation about the challenges that we face as policymakers.

What we know is that when intercountry adoption is done well and fairly, massive human tragedy is avoided. But when it is done poorly, massive human tragedy is created. I do not believe that it is beyond the capacities and the expertise of the people who work in this parliament and around it to solve some of those policy challenges. I believe that if we took a similar approach in trying to protect children in the same way that we try to protect adults we would probably see a little bit more energy, attention and focus, but I am pleased to see some progress being made in this area.

I want to take some time in the discussion today to talk about Australian children, especially those who are in out-of-home care. There are about 43,000 Australian children at the moment who are living away from their parents. We hear a similar story with intercountry adoption. Last year just 203 of those children were permanently adopted into another Australian family. Children, especially vulnerable children, need stability. Foster care, by its very definition, is impermanent. Under today's system, the evidence is really clearly borne out: a quarter of the children who live in foster care today in Australia have lived in 10 or more households during their time in care. That number is heartbreaking and gutting. We have to ask ourselves how we could have let this happen. Again, if the people primarily affected by this problem were adults I think we would see a very different national conversation happening about how we could help more of these vulnerable people go into safe households. I note some recent policy changes that we have seen in some states. Victoria and New South Wales have made some changes to try to better protect children in the foster care system. It is not that this national crisis is being avoided, but the numbers remain as they are: 43,000 children and 200 adoptions. It is simply not enough.

There are many other issues facing this system. We see year on year that the number of children who need the support of the community through foster care is growing and growing. Yet over time we see the number of foster carers, who are not getting the care and protection that they need, getting smaller and smaller. Fourteen per cent of all foster parents left the system in the last year. That is a huge indication to us as policymakers that we are not doing what we need to do to support those families.

I have been a foster parent myself, and it is something that I hope I can do a lot more of in the future. I have come nowhere near living up to my responsibility to the many Australian children who need the care of the community. I note this experience only to have the opportunity to say that, having lived within that system and experienced it, I have seen the system being skewed too much in favour of the parents who are not doing justice to their own children, often at the expense of the care and attention given to those children, who should always be at the heart and soul of that system.

We need to do better. When I say 'we', I do not just mean the people in this parliament who are trying to make sure that we have the right policy settings in place. There is a lot that government can do to help protect Australian children, but governments cannot provide safe and happy homes for kids who need them. Only the community can do that. So we need to think a little more about what we as Australians can do to support those tens of thousands of children who need our help and support.

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