Insight: Mar 4

This week, Insight asks whether it should be easier to adopt Australian children, and how it will affect the children in the long term.

Jenny Brockie speaks to children who have been in foster care, as well as adoptive parents and those trying to adopt.

“It was like, you’ll be geriatric before you get a child and the child’s going to be so traumatised” – Ross

“I’d been through so many placements and so if anyone came to the door, I would go hide in my room.” – Brendan, 15.

There is a push in NSW to change laws to make it easier to adopt Australian children in care – a move that could transform the adoption landscape across the country.

This week, Insight asks whether it should be easier to adopt Australian children, and how it will affect the children in the long term.

Local adoptions have substantially declined over the past few decades. Many potential parents put it down to the difficulty of adopting a child, with some waiting years for the adoption process to be completed.

Meanwhile, some children are spending much of their young lives in foster care, without ever being adopted.

But NSW Minister for Family and Community Services Pru Goward is pushing for more kids in care to be adopted, saying this needs to be prioritised over foster care.

Award-winning host Jenny Brockie speaks to children who have been in foster care, as well as adoptive parents and those trying to adopt, about the challenges they have faced.

Brockie also hears from biological parents whose children have been removed from their care about their struggles to get them back.

Guests include:

Brendan, Shannon and Julie.
Julie adopted Brendan and Shannon after first fostering them. The brothers say that adoption gave them a sense of security that foster care didn’t provide. They are in an open adoption, but since the age of 12 have decided to only have minimal contact with their biological mother.

Nick Davies
Nick went through 26 foster homes growing up. He admits that he was a troubled kid and some of the carers couldn’t handle his behaviours. He sometimes wonders if life would have been different if he was adopted. But he believes that, with the right carers, there’s little difference between foster care and adoption.

“Katelin”
Katelin was addicted to drugs when her daughter was removed by child protection authorities. Katelin was able to get clean and, after three years, she got her daughter restored to her care. She says people in her situation can need a long time, and significant supports, in order to turn their lives around and prove they can parent.

Marian
Marian adopted three children from foster care in the UK. She thought that a loving home would be enough to heal any wounds that the children had brought with them from their troubled past. But she struggled to cope and went through bouts of depression. Marian says there must be significant supports in place for people adopting kids from foster care.

Pru Goward, NSW Minister for Family and Community Services.
Pru is advocating for legal reforms that would make it easier to adopt young children who have been permanently removed from their parents by child protection authorities. She would like to see adoption prioritised over foster care for these children as a way of giving them permanency at a young age.

Tuesday at 8.30pm on SBS ONE.