WHAT IS ADOPTION?

2.1 Currently, adoption is a legal process by which a person becomes, legally, a child of the adopting parents and ceases to be a child of the birth parents. All the legal consequences of parenthood are transferred from the birth parents to the adoptive parents. The adopted child obtains a new birth certificate showing the adopters as the parents, and acquires rights of support and rights of inheritance from the adopting parents. The adopting parents acquire rights to guardianship and custody of the child. Normally the child takes the adopters’ surname. The birth parents cease to have any legal obligations towards the child and lose their rights to custody and guardianship. Inheritance rights between the child and the birth parents also disappear. Adoption is governed by New South Wales law, specifically the Adoption of Children Act 1965. Adoption applications are determined by the Supreme Court of New South Wales.

2.2 The statements in the above paragraph are intended to summarise the main characteristics of adoption¹ and to help readers to assess the proposals for reform that appear in the later sections of this Paper. Some aspects of adoption law will be explained more fully in connection with particular issues as they arise.

BACKGROUND TO THE LEGISLATION

2.3 The Adoption of Children Act 1965 (NSW), which came into force in 1967, is based on a model adoption Act which was followed by all Australian jurisdictions and led to relatively uniform adoption laws in Australia. Since the 1960s, the differences between the Australian jurisdictions have become much greater as there have been numerous amendments, and in some cases completely new Acts. It is necessary to say something about the earlier developments of adoption law in New South Wales before considering the 1965 Act.

Early developments

2.4 The period up to 1967 saw the gradual development of adoption law. Initially, adoption was regulated by provisions in child welfare legislation.² Early legislation provided that adoption orders could be made by the Supreme Court, and dealt with the consequences of adoption. Adoptions could be arranged by the parties themselves, with the assistance of intermediaries such as medical practitioners or clerics, or by adoption agencies. The adoption of a child normally required the consent of both birth parents (only the mother where the child was ex-nuptial). The Court could make orders without the consent of the birth parents in certain circumstances, such as where they could not be found or had abandoned the child. However, the Court was concerned to protect the rights of the birth parents, and so was generally reluctant to make orders against their wishes.³

The Adoption of Children Act 1965

2.5 The 1965 Act was the first comprehensive treatment of adoption law in New South Wales, and many of its features remain in the law today. It introduced three major changes in the law.

2.6 First, the Act included a provision that, in making orders relating to the child, the Court should regard the child’s welfare as “the paramount consideration”.⁴ This principle had previously been developed by the Courts, and then expressed in the legislation, in the context of custody and guardianship matters. Its inclusion in the adoption legislation is a matter of considerable importance.

2.7 A second characteristic of the 1965 Act was that it banned privately-arranged adoptions, except within the extended family. In giving consent to adoption, the birth parents could not consent to the adoption of the child by a particular person or class of persons; they could only give consent to the child’s adoption by any person.⁵ In practice this meant any couple selected by an adoption agency and approved by the Court. Other rules reinforced the monopoly given to adoption agencies. For example, it was an offence to place children privately for the purpose of adoption,⁶ or advertise for adoptive parents,⁷ and applications to the Court had to be made by the agency, not by the intending adopters.⁸ This regulatory framework was relaxed in the case of adoptions by relatives and step-parents. In these cases, the parents of the child and the step-parent or relative could arrange the placement. The parents could consent to the child being adopted by the selected step-parent or relative, and the intending adoptive parents could themselves apply to the Court for an adoption order. However, there was still a degree of regulation. A report from the New South Wales Department of Community Services or an authorised agency on the merits of the proposed adoption was normally required,⁹ and the order would only be made if the Court found that the requirements of the Act were satisfied and that the adoption would promote the child’s welfare.¹⁰

2.8 A third characteristic of the 1965 Act was a tightening of provisions relating to secrecy in adoption. New provisions attempted to ensure that members of the birth family and the adoptive family would not discover each other’s identity, and that the records of the adoption would be kept confidential. Indeed, the new birth certificate issued for the adopted child was intended to disguise the fact that the child had been adopted. This aspect of the legislation has been considered in detail in the Commission’s Report on the Adoption Information Act 1990.¹¹

Social changes since 1967

2.9 There have been many changes, both in society and in the law of adoption, since the Act commenced operation in 1967. The 1970s saw the beginning of a dramatic decline in the numbers of babies relinquished for adoption, and this had important implications for adoption law and practice. While at the commencement of the 1970s adoption agencies were concerned to find enough couples willing to adopt the available children, by the late 1970s the situation had reversed; there were many couples anxious to adopt, and a much smaller number of Australian babies available for adoption. In 1971-72, the then Department of Child Welfare and Social Welfare arranged 3,882 adoptions.¹² This can be contrasted with 154 placements by the Department of Community Services in 1991.¹³

2.10 It is generally thought that the reasons for the sharp reduction in available children included increased financial support for single mothers (the Supporting Mother’s Benefit was introduced in 1973), increased availability of contraception and abortion, and a changing social climate which reduced the stigma and difficulty associated with single parenting.

2.11 There was no corresponding decline in the demand to adopt children. On the contrary, it appears to have increased. The previous availability of adoptable babies, the successful efforts to persuade people to adopt, the relative wealth and stability of Australia, the social emphasis on nuclear families as the accepted norm and the limitations of effective services for infertile couples may all have contributed to the continuing demand for adoptive children. The increased desire of many infertile couples to adopt children led to a new interest in the adoption of children other than newborn healthy “white” Australians, and there was a rise in the numbers of adoptions of foster children, older children, children with disadvantages and, especially, children from other countries. The former practice of allocating babies among approved adopters became unworkable because it came to involve applicants being on waiting lists for unreasonably lengthy periods.

2.12 Other changes in social patterns and values had an impact on adoption law and practice. A growing appreciation of the impact of adoption on the multicultural Australian society led to a questioning of the merits of the “clean break” that was traditionally associated with adoption, in cases where the adopters were of a different race or cultural group from the birth family. Emerging respect for diversity and the importance of cultural inheritance suggested that the task of adoption law was somehow to give these children the benefits of a secure family life while preserving their links with the culture or race of their parents. More specifically, publications and films led to a new awareness of the tragic story of the removal of many Aboriginal children from their families and communities through the operation of child welfare and adoption laws. By the end of the 1980s there was a widespread consensus that adoption should not be used in a way that separated Aboriginal children from their Aboriginal culture and heritage.¹⁴ A growing concern with the rights of individuals to have access to personal information held by governments, and the right to privacy, also led to a questioning of the secrecy associated with adoption.¹⁵ The publication of the personal experiences of adopted people, and of criticisms of some of the practices and assumptions underlying adoption, also exposed adoption to re-evaluation.

2.13 The stigma associated with birth outside marriage also appeared to be lessening. In the mid-1970s most states and territories introduced legislation intended to remove the legal disabilities of illegitimacy.¹⁶ Such laws and policies raised questions about aspects of adoption law, such as the position of fathers of ex-nuptial children, whose rights had found little recognition. Finally, rising divorce rates and the consequent increase of “blended families” meant that the model of the separate nuclear family which appeared to underlie adoption was ceasing to be regarded as essential to the upbringing of children. Despite such changes, adoption remained for many people a symbol of total commitment to a child, and was still valued as providing a unique degree of security for children who, for whatever reason, were not going to be cared for by their birth families.

Amendments to the 1965 Act

2.14 It will be convenient here to summarise the main features of the amendments made to the 1965 Act. The Act has been amended on seven occasions.¹⁷ The more significant amendments may be summarised as follows. In 1966, the grounds on which the Court could dispense with the consent of the birth parents to the adoption of the child were expanded to include the ground that, by dispensing with consent, the child’s welfare would be promoted.¹⁸ The 1971 Act eased the restrictions on adoptions by single parents, and adoptions of persons over twenty-one years of age.¹⁹ It also provided that in the case of step-parent adoptions, the applicants, as well as the Director-General of the Department of Community Services or an authorised agency, could apply for dispensation from the requirement for parental consent.²⁰

2.15 The 1980 Act provided for an Adoption Tribunal to exercise jurisdiction under the Act, but these provisions have never been brought into force.²¹ The Act also dealt with a number of other issues. The adopting parents’ lack of religious conviction was not to be taken into account as a separate matter relevant to their suitability.²² There were new provisions relating to fathers of ex-nuptial children.²³ These provisions, in brief, stated that the consent of such fathers was not required but, where their paternity was established, they were entitled to notice of the proceedings, so that they could, if they wished, oppose them. Failure to respond to such notice, however, precluded them from further involvement with the proceedings or with the child,²⁴ and the Court could dispense with notice in limited circumstances. The 1980 Act also added new grounds on which the Court could dispense with parental consent.²⁵ Two of these grounds were intended to facilitate the adoption of children who had been placed in foster homes or residential care, and the third enabled consent to be dispensed with where the person whose consent was required failed to respond to a notice within fourteen days. The 1980 Acts also provided for subsidised adoptions.²⁶

2.16 The 1984 Act incorporated limited changes associated with legislation granting increased recognition to de facto relationships.²⁷ In certain circumstances it allowed de facto partners to adopt the children of one or both of the partners.²⁸ The 1987 Act expanded the capacity of de facto partners to adopt children; they could now adopt children who had been in their care for at least two years,²⁹ and children with special needs.³⁰ It also included a provision for the adoption of Aboriginal children by Aboriginal people who were married according to the traditions of an Aboriginal community. It provided that in the case of children between 15 and 18 years who had been brought up by the applicants for adoption, the child’s consent alone is required.³¹ It also provided that overseas adoptions would not be recognised unless the adopters had been resident in the overseas country for at least 12 months.³²

PURPOSES OF ADOPTION

2.17 In Australia today, adoption is often associated with the objective of providing a new family to take care of a baby or young child. The process of adoption was developed in order to encourage married couples to undertake the permanent care of children born to unmarried mothers. Although this may have been appropriate in the past, when infants accounted for the vast majority of adoptees, it has since been applied to other types of children.³³ As noted above, the objective of adoption was to permanently sever the child from the birth family and to transfer him or her to complete membership of the adoptive family.

2.18 It is necessary to look at the original purpose of adoption, with which the legislation was drafted, and test its validity against current developments in society. Consider the following changes that have taken place since the drafting of the Adoption of Children Act 1965:

• the introduction of financial support for single mothers;
• a reduction in the stigma associated with single parenthood and the recognition of the value of many different kinds of family structures;
• recognition of the rights and needs of children to have access to information about their genetic heritage, and the subsequent development of the practice of “open adoption” as an attempt to address these needs;
• an increasingly widely-held view that children are separate beings with individual rights;34
• growing appreciation of cultural links and the value of an individual’s ethnic heritage;
• recognition of the rights and responsibilities of birth parents;
• the current divorce rates and the subsequent numbers of blended families leading to an increase in requests to facilitate step-parent adoption;
• dramatic changes in the type of children being adopted. Approximately half of the adoptions taking place in New South Wales each year are inter-country adoptions. There are also significant numbers of special needs adoptions and intra-family adoptions.

2.19 Adoption now faces the criticism that it is a system which promotes the separation of children and birth parents in order to satisfy the need of infertile people to become parents. For a child that has been abused or abandoned, with no hope of contact or reconciliation with his or her birth family, adoption may be an entirely beneficial and positive experience where the child has lost very little. However, many adoptions are not of this kind. Some adoptions may involve a loss for the child in terms of contact with birth family, extended birth family and ethnic and racial heritage. Adoptions by former foster parents and adoptions by step-parents do not usually involve reconsideration of the child’s placement, but alter the child’s legal relationship with his or her carers and sever the child’s relationships with his or her extended birth family.

2.20 Occasionally, adoption may be used for a specific and limited purpose, for example, to bring a person within the terms of a family trust.³⁵ It is well known that in different societies, and at different times in history, adoption has served a variety of purposes. Until quite recently, for example, one of the main functions of adoption in Australia was to remove “the stigma of illegitimacy”, but this factor probably plays a very small part in adoptions today.³⁶ An adopted person may become entitled to inherit property or titles, may be treated differently for taxation purposes or may acquire or lose citizenship rights. Adoption has often been chosen for such reasons and, in these cases, it may have nothing to do with caring for young children. The specific purposes of adoption may vary from case to case and from time to time.

2.21 It should be the purpose of adoption not only to secure a permanent home for a child, but to do so in a way that is flexible enough to take account of the broad spectrum of children who require care. It is widely accepted that whatever its specific purpose may be, modern adoption should be intended essentially to benefit the adopted child. This is reflected in the provision of the Act that the child’s welfare is to be regarded as “the paramount consideration”.³⁷ Therefore, adoption must be able to reflect current attitudes regarding the importance of cultural and family ties that exist at birth and the rights and needs of children as individuals. Chapter 3 of this Paper discusses the ability of the adoption process to absorb these necessary changes and examines its capacity to reflect the child’s best interests.

FORMS OF ADOPTION

2.22 There are different ways of describing the various forms of adoption. The descriptions below are the ones most commonly used and are convenient for discussion of the issues.

Local infant adoptions

Introduction

2.23 In the 1960s the most important form of adoption involved the adoption of healthy Australian-born infants by unrelated adopters who had been selected by the Department of Community Services or by an authorised adoption agency. The structure of the existing Act still reflects the dominance of this form of adoption. Today, the number of these adoptions is rather small. The table opposite indicates the number of adoptions of this kind and the agencies involved.

Agencies providing local infant adoption services

2.24 There are four providers of adoption services for the adoption of infants born in NSW.

2.25 The Department of Community Services. The Department has a central local adoption section for the co-ordination of local adoption services. The Department offers a State wide service through its networkspecific needs of the children.

2.26 Centacare Adoption Services. Centacare is conducted under the auspice of the Catholic church. This agency is based in Sydney. In the case of non-metropolitan clients, the agency utilises hospital social workers (private counsellors known to the agency), and Centacare officers in larger regional areas for the supervised provision of services to birth parents. The agency has also utilised members of the St Vincent de Paul Society to report on the suitability of housing of country applicants. of Community Welfare Service offices.

Consents and Revocations / Agency in New South Wales38

1991, 1992 and 1.1.93 to 30.6.93

AGENCY	ACTION	1991	1992	1.1.93 to 30.06.93
Department of Community Services	Consents given	53	58	27
	Revocations	13	12	3
	Infant Wards	4	5	1
	Placements*	44	51**	25
Careforce (Anglican Adoption Agency)	Consents given	18	10	10
	Revocations	2	0	10
	Placements*	16	10	10
Centacare (Catholic Adoption Agency)	Consents given	25	35	8
	Revocations	6	8	4
	Placements*	19	27	4
Total Placements		79	88	39

[Link to text only version of table]

Notes:

* The placement numbers are the placements resulting from the consents taken in this period.

** Of the 51 placements resulting from the consents taken in this period only 41 were placed with applicants from the pool. The other children were placed with siblings previously relinquished or with special attribute families who were recruited from outside the pool of approved applicants to meet.

2.27 Careforce. This is the Anglican adoption agency. This agency limits its services to persons within a 200 kilometre radius of Sydney.

2.28 Barnardos Australia. Barnardos is the fourth licensed adoption agency. They offer adoption services primarily for children aged older than two years. The service provision is limited to clients within a 50 kilometre radius of Sydney. Centacare, Barnardos and Careforce are private adoption agencies by virtue of Part 3 of the Adoption of Children Act 1965. They have been approved by the Director-General in accordance with s10 of that Act and are authorised to conduct negotiations and make arrangements with a view to the adoption of children.

2.29 The authorised adoption agencies also deal with special case and special needs adoptions (see below), but only the Department of Community Services is involved in the process of inter-country adoption.

Intra-family adoptions

2.30 Some adoptions involve only members of a family. The most common examples are adoptions by grandparents and by step-parents. There are approximately 150 step-parent adoptions each year.

“Special needs” adoptions

2.31 “Special needs” adoptions refer to the adoption of children whose needs require special qualities in the adopting parents. Such needs may arise from the fact that a child is older or disadvantaged by some physical or intellectual disability. In the past many of these children would have been regarded as “unadoptable”, but in recent times adoption agencies have been keen to use adoption to provide homes for these children, some of whom might otherwise have lived indefinitely in institutions. In practice, these adoptions are sometimes subsidised and the selection of adoptive parents reflects the special needs of the child.

“Special case” adoptions

2.32 Adoptions are referred to as “special case adoptions” when the Department of Community Services or an authorised adoption agency supports an adoption application by adoptive parents who have not been assessed in the usual way. In these cases there has been a prior placement of a child which was made outside the regulatory scheme that applies to non-family adoptions. For example, the child may have previously been placed with the adoptive parents as a foster child. Alternatively, the child may have been previously placed with them informally, as can occur in surrogate parent arrangements. In these cases the child, whether born locally or overseas, has been placed in the care of non-relatives by way of a private arrangement.

2.33 Usually, the adoption application is made because the child is well settled in the care of the proposed adopters, and it is thought that adoption is in the child’s best interests. Special case applications raise difficult policy issues because they involve by-passing the normal procedures which are designed to protect children, birth parents and intending adopters against ill-considered or even exploitative arrangements.

Ward adoptions

2.34 Ward adoptions refer to adoptions of children who have been declared wards of the State and are therefore under the guardianship of the Minister for Community Services. However, there is some overlap with special case adoptions as ward adoptions may take place after a child has been placed into a family as a foster child while being a ward of the State. In other cases, the Department may approve adoption as the case plan for a particular ward. This may be done after a conference to consider whether or not adoption would be in the best interests of the particular child.

Inter-country adoptions

2.35 Of the 154 placements made by the Department of Community Services in 1991, approximately 93 of those placements were inter-country adoptions. Inter-country adoptions usually involve an Australian couple making arrangements to adopt a child from an overseas country. Normally, the adoptive parents are approved as suitable in Australia, then visit the overseas country and obtain a child by arrangement with the overseas adoption authorities. They adopt the child under New South Wales law after their return. It is also possible, though uncommon, for an Australian child to be adopted in another country. Inter-country adoptions involve questions of immigration law and practice, and questions about the circumstances in the overseas country which led to the child becoming available for adoption. They also involve issues of identity, cultural continuity, and all the issues that arise when a person moves to a new country and to a different culture and lifestyle.

Mature age adoption

2.36 While most children must be under 18 years of age on the date the adoption application is filed in the Supreme Court, the Adoption of Children Act 1965 makes provision for the adoption of people 18 years old and over. Section 18(b) of the Act states that mature age adoptions may occur where the adoptee is not or has not been married and:

(i) had been brought up, maintained and educated by the applicant or applicants, or by the applicant and a deceased spouse of the applicant as his [or her] or their child; or

(ii) had, as a ward within the meaning of the Child Welfare Act 1939 or the Children (Care and Protection) Act 1987, been in the care or custody of the applicant or applicants or of the applicant and a deceased spouse of the applicant.

DEVELOPMENTS IN OTHER AUSTRALIAN JURISDICTIONS

2.37 Since the “uniform” legislation of the mid-1960s, and especially in recent years, there has been considerable modification of the adoption legislation in various Australian jurisdictions. In Victoria, a major and influential review published in 1983³⁹ led to the Adoption Act 1984 (Vic).

2.38 This Act made many changes, including creating rights to information for adult adoptees, discouraging step-parent adoption, requiring the wishes and feelings of children to be taken into account, requiring consent from fathers of ex-nuptial children in certain circumstances, and making special provision for Aboriginal adoptions. Many of these topics have been the subject of recent proposals or amendments in other jurisdictions, although they have been treated in different ways. The Adoption Amendment Act 1991 (Vic) has been proclaimed but is not yet implemented. Queensland’s Adoption of Children Act 1964 (Qld) has been substantially amended, and now includes provisions for information rights (subject to veto) for adult adoptees and birth parents. This Act has been amended most recently by the Adoption Legislation Amendment Act 1991 (Qld) No 2. South Australia replaced its former legislation with a shorter Act, the Adoption of Children Act 1988 (SA).⁴⁰ Western Australia has just completed a major review of its legislation, the Adoption of Children Act 1896 (WA). Following the review, the Adoption Bill 1992 (WA) was produced and proceeded to the committee stage in the Legislative Assembly before the end of the Parliamentary session in 1992. This Bill continues to be reviewed, with implementation anticipated in mid-1994. Tasmania has recently passed new legislation, the Adoption Act 1988 (Tas). The Australian Capital Territory has recently reviewed its legislation and, on 2 April 1993, enacted the Adoption Act 1993 (ACT). The Northern Territory undertook a review of its adoption legislation in 1987⁴¹ and the Adoption of Children Amendment Act was passed in 1991.

1. For detailed treatments, see A Dickey Family Law (2nd ed, Law Book Company, Sydney, 1990) and H Finlay and R Bailey-Harris Family Law in Australia (4th ed, Butterworths, Sydney, 1989).

2. Child Welfare Act 1923 (NSW) s 123-129; Child Welfare Act 1939 (NSW) s162-173.

3. Mace v Murray (1955) 92 CLR 370.

4. Adoption of Children Act 1965 (NSW) s 17.

5. Section 27(1).

6. Section 51.

7. Section 52.

8. Section 18(2).

9. The Court can dispense with the report: s 21 (1A)(a) and (c).

10. Section 21.

11. New South Wales. Law Reform Commission Review of the Adoption Information Act 1990 (Report 69, July 1992), Chapter 2.

12. New South Wales. Department of Child Welfare and Social Welfare Annual Report 1972.

13. New South Wales. Department of Family and Community Services Adoption Newsletter: October 1992 at 1. It is the opinion of the NSW Committee on Adoption that these placements included special needs and inter-country placements as well as the placements of non-relative children born in NSW. The number of NSW born non-relative placements would have accounted for less than 100 of the 154 placements, Submission (9 September, 1993) at 13.

14. See, for example, P Read, The Stolen Generations: The Removal of Aboriginal Children in New South Wales, 1883-1969, (New South Wales Ministry of Aboriginal Affairs, Sydney, c.1983), C Edwards and P Read, The Lost Children, (Doubleday, Moorebank NSW, 1989) and Lousy Little Sixpence (Ronin Films, Campbell ACT, 1983).

15. See generally New South Wales. Law Reform Commission Review of the Adoption Information Act 1990 (Report 69, July 1992).

16. See, for example, Children (Equality of Status) Act 1977 (NSW).

17. Adoption of Children (Amendment) Act 1966 (NSW); Adoption of Children (Amendment) Act 1971 (NSW); Adoption of Children (Domicile) Amendment Act 1979 (NSW); Adoption of Children (Amendment) Act 1980 (NSW); Adoption of Children (Community Welfare) Amendment Act 1982 (NSW); Adoption of Children (De Facto Relationships) Amendment Act 1984 (NSW); Adoption of Children (Amendment) Act 1987 (NSW).

18. Adoption of Children (Amendment) Act 1966 (NSW) s 2, adding para (e) to s 32.

19. Adoption of Children (Amendment) Act 1971 (NSW) s 2, amending s 19(2) and 21(1)(c)(ii)(b), in each case changing the requirement of “exceptional circumstances” to “particular circumstances”.

20. Adoption of Children (Amendment) Act 1971 (NSW) s 2(h), inserting sub-s (1A) into s 32. It also enabled the Court, in certain circumstances, to dispense with giving notice to the persons whose consent was required: s 2(h)(iv).

21. Adoption of Children (Amendment) Act 1980 (NSW), Schedule 1. Most of the other amendments were not brought into force until 1984 and later.

22. This amendment effectively overruled statements made in Re an Infant E and the Adoption of Children Act [1974] 1 NSWLR 739.

23. Schedule 3, amending s 21, 22, 23, 26 and inserting s 31A-31E.

24. Schedule 3, inserting s 49A.

25. Schedule 3, amending s 32.

26. Schedule 3, inserting s 68A and 68B.

27. See especially De Facto Relationships Act 1984 (NSW), based on New South Wales Law Reform Commission, De Facto Relationships (Report 36, June 1983).

28. Adoption of Children (De Facto Relationships) Amendment Act 1984 (NSW), Schedule 1, amending s 19 and s 26.

29. This requirement could be dispensed with by the Court: see s 19(1B), amended by the 1987 Act.

30. Adoption of Children (Amendment) Act 1987 (NSW), Schedule 1, amending s 19 and s 21.

31. Schedule 1, inserting s 26(4A) and s 33(2).

32. Schedule 1, inserting s 46(2)(b) and (7).

33. United Kingdom. Department of Health and Welsh Office, Inter-Departmental Review of Adoption Law Discussion Paper no 1: The Nature and Effect of Adoption September 1990 at 56.

34. R Ludbrook Submission (10 September 1993).

35. Re K and the Adoption of Children Act 1965 (1988) 12 Fam LR 263.

36. See, for example, Re CM and MG (1976) 9 ALR 666.

37. Adoption of Children Act 1965 (NSW), s 17.

38. Table prepared by A Roughley, Identifying Adoption Practice and Problems in Relation to Local Adoption of Infants, Project 2 prepared at the request of the Commission, 23 September 1993 at 3.

39. Victoria. The Adoption Legislation Review Committee Report of the Adoption Legislation Review Committee (Melbourne, 1983).

40. The Act was enacted after an extensive review of adoption in the mid-1980s and introduced some innovative concepts. In February 1994, the Minister for Family and Community Services requested a review of selected parts of the Act to take place over a six month period.

41. Northern Territory. Department of Health and Community Services Northern Territory Adoption of Children Act Review (Discussion Paper, 1987).