Adoption Law Reform: A personal view

Adoption law does not adequately apply the best interests of the child as the paramount consideration. As a consequence of each of the States and Territories of the Commonwealth of Australia having enacted their own laws, a child who is adopted in one jurisdiction is subject to different laws from a child adopted in another. That particularly applies to the application of the paramountcy principle. There have been significant changes to adoption law which have benefited parents, adoptees and adoptive parents by enabling greater transparency, allowing adoptees to learn their identities and assist in reunions in appropriate cases. The consequences of forced adoptions highlighted the antithesis of greater transparency. This article argues that each of the States and Territories refer the legislative power in adoption to the Commonwealth to overcome the diversity of adoption laws and enable the enactment of a national uniform adoption law. The Commonwealth should vest the jurisdiction in the Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia. What is now known as an order for adoption should be determined by the Court in the same manner as a parenting order in family law. In referring the powers, the States and Territories should reserve questions of succession law and adult applications for discharge of adoption orders to their own courts. Consideration should be given to abandoning the term ‘adoption’.