SA Government plans to increase state care adoptions, excluding Aboriginal children

Aboriginal children will be excluded from a plan to boost adoptions of children in state care in South Australia because of cultural sensitivities around the Stolen Generation, the State Government says.

Key points:

The South Australian Government has begun consulting on a plan to increase open adoptions of children in state care

The open adoptions will exclude Aboriginal children

No children have been adopted out of state care in the past five years

With the number of children in care continuing to soar, the South Australian Government has begun consulting on a plan to increase open adoption.

Adoption from care has long been legally available but is rarely used — with no children in care being adopted in the past five years.

In 2016, a sweeping Royal Commission into the state's child protection system stopped short of recommending increased adoption.

Commissioner Margaret Nyland instead suggested the Government increase the use of "Other Person Guardianship" orders to provide children with greater stability.

But Child Protection Minister Rachel Sanderson said those orders were problematic as they expire when a child turns 18.

"We're looking at giving people, children and kids, the opportunity to have a forever home," she told ABC Radio Adelaide.

But Ms Sanderson said that option would not be extended to Aboriginal children, who make up 30 per cent of the population of children in state care.

"I think most of the community is aware of the sensitivities around the Stolen Generation," she said.

"I spoke at a major Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander conference on Wednesday night, there were 1,200 people attending that conference, and they made it very clear as a community that this is not an option that they want to be considered for their children."

Ms Sanderson said long-term guardianship orders and separate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander placement principles would apply.

Anglicare SA chief executive Peter Sandeman said adoption provided certainty for children in circumstances where they have to be permanently removed from their parents.

"As an adopted person, I have nieces and nephews, who are clearly my nieces and nephews, even though my brothers and I were not biologically related, it really fixes the identity of a family," he said.

"However, it needs to be open adoption, it needs to be clear that this is an open adoption, not a closed adoption, with access to the information about who and where you come from when the child is old enough to seek that information."

Adoption 'not for everyone', but should be an option

When Emmah Money was born with cystic fibrosis, her parents were told she would not survive childhood.

She was offered up for adoption when she was a few days old.

Ms Money was in foster care for a few months before being placed with carers, who had undertaken a special needs program.

"By Christmas Day, Mum and Dad got me for the day, to see how it all went, basically, and then by New Year's Day, they were officially given me as their child.

"Twelve months later, they were legally my parents."

Ms Money's adoptive father was a Paralympic weightlifter and her adopted mother was a nurse.

She said while adoption was not for everyone, it should be an option for those who do need it.

"I don't know anyone else that would be capable of adopting a child with cystic fibrosis, knowing what the doctor said," she told ABC Radio Adelaide.

"But my mum and dad have always said to me, they have never looked at me as a sick child, they looked at me as a child that was going to live a full life.

"And they were going to make sure that that's exactly what I did."

Biological family found 'by accident'

At age 16, Ms Money found her biological family by accident.

On a night out, she was mistaken for somebody else, who turned out to be her biological sister.

In an emotional twist, Ms Money then learned that her biological parents believed that she had died.

"I then went on to meet them, within months of that, and they had believed that I had passed away," she said.

"My brother is four years older than I am, and he says he remembers losing a baby sister, so it was a very emotional, accidental time for everybody involved in it.

"But I did find them, and yes, it was very, very interesting time of my life."

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