JODIE HARRISON CONDEMNS THE BEREJIKLIAN GOVERNMENT

FOR ITS DRACONIAN ADOPTION LAWS

Member for Charlestown, Jodie Harrison today spoke on the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Amendment Bill 2018 which was debated through the night in the Legislative Assembly on Tuesday and resumed today.



The proposed billimposes new guardianship and adoption orders with a two year maximum timeframe for restoration, while failing to recognise the significant systemic barriers families face in accessing appropriate services.

The legislation has been widely criticised for its potential to create a new Stolen Generation, only ten years after Kevin Rudds apology to the Stolen Generation.

Many community and advocacy groups, including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups AbSec, Grandmothers against Removals and the Aboriginal Legal Service have raised their opposition to the Bill.

My real fear is that the staff resources of Family and Community Services are already over stretched and unable to make face to face assessments on the 14,931 children currently at risk of serious harm in the Hunter New England, Ms Harrison said.

This legislation will impose a requirement for a permanent family to be found for a child within two years of separation from their birth family, and to be honest, FACS doesnt have the resources to be able to do this properly, nor is this arbitrary timeframe likely to be in the best interest of the child, she said.

The last available figures of Children at Risk of Serious Harm (ROSH) in the Hunter New England region are for October 2016-September 2017. These figures showed that there were 14,931 children reported at risk of serious harm in Hunter New England with only 23% of those seen face to face by a caseworker.



A Labor government will repeal this legislation.



Shadow Minister for Family and Community Services, Tania Mihailuk, slammed the Berejiklian Government for attempting to ram through draconian adoption laws in its dying days, following eight long years of neglect of the child protection sector.



These draconian laws are a last ditch attempt by Minister Goward to cement a legacy for herself at the expense of vulnerable children, Ms Mihailuk said.

(ENDS)