Abstract
This chapter examines the influence of the right-leaning Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) on the state of New South Wales’ child protection and adoption laws. The chapter finds that the CIS played a discernible role in escalating this highly emotive issue to the status of political priority. The institute successfully reframed the issue debate and helped to set the ensuing policy agenda through its aggressive submission of disruptive—and controversial—arguments.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
- 3.
This chapter is informed by eleven semi-structured interviews and primary and secondary document analysis.
- 4.
Sammut’s thesis is entitled ‘The quest for civic virtue: citizenship and politics in federal Australia’.
- 5.
Sammut reports that there were 31,166 children in out-of-home care in 2008 (Sammut, 2009a, p. vii).
- 6.
Sammut reports that approximately 29% of children had been in out-of-home care for over five years in 2008 (Sammut, 2009a, p. vii).
- 7.
Local adoption in NSW is governed under the Adoption Act 2000. The AIHW defines local adoption as ‘the adoption of children born or permanently residing in Australia before the adoption who are legally able to be placed for adoption, but generally have had no previous contact with the adoptive parents’ (AIHW, 2020b).
- 8.
A known-child adoption occurs ‘where the child is already known to the adoptive parents’ (AIHW, 2019).
- 9.
Sammut reports that there were seventy local adoptions in Australia in 2008 (Sammut, 2009a).
- 10.
The AIHW note that several jurisdictions repealed legislation in 1972 that had allowed the legal removal of Indigenous children from their parents (AIHW, 2018, p. 4).
- 11.
The exact number of forced adoptions is difficult to determine due to the lack of data regarding parental consent and the reason for the adoption (Commonwealth of Australia, 2012, pp. 9–10).
- 12.
The Child Protection Legislation Amendment Act 2014 (No 8) formalised the reforms.
- 13.
Susan Tregeagle from Barnardos sought academics’ support on the merits of adoption, and ‘every single one of them said no’ (interview, 2020).
- 14.
Philip Mendes—himself an academic—being the exception (he referenced another academic scholar).
- 15.
Adopt Change was previously named Orphan Angels Ltd, National Adoption Awareness Week Ltd, and Adoption Awareness Ltd before trading as Adopt Change Ltd in 2014 (ASIC, 2020).
- 16.
A Factiva search using the term ‘anti-adoption’ in ‘Major News and Business Sources: Australian and New Zealand’ for ‘All dates’, was performed on October 29, 2020.
- 17.
Additional Factiva searches (and of Hansard) show Bishop rarely referenced the issue after 2007.
- 18.
Furness and her husband (the Australian actor Hugh Jackman) adopted two children while in the US due to impediments they encountered in Australia (Connolly, 2007).
- 19.
Sammut appeared on 2 GB with Alan Jones on May 2, 2014, and on 4BC on November 17, 2017; he appeared with Peta Credlin on Sky News on November 17 and 28, 2017; on the Bolt Report on August 9, 2016; and on ABC Lateline on July 22, 2013.
- 20.
Pru Goward was Minister for Family and Community Services from April 2011 to April 2014, and from January 2017 to April 2019 (NSW Government, 2020a).
- 21.
- 22.
Two interviewees independently confirmed this event but were unable to recall its title.
- 23.
Minister Goward’s Chief of Staff, Anthony Benscher, confirms this version of events (email communication, 2020).
- 24.
Benscher was temporarily assigned responsibility for community services advice—in addition to his Chief of Staff role—when the new Liberal government first came into office.
- 25.
Sammut’s 2011 report was published in November.
- 26.
It is important to note that while the CIS and Barnardos aligned on the validity of adoption as a permanency solution, there were otherwise critical differences in their perspectives. Susan Tregeagle states that some of Sammut’s proposals made it ‘much harder’ for Barnardos when dealing with the child welfare sector (interview, 2020.
- 27.
This Factiva search was conducted on November 30, 2020, using the search criteria ‘adoption’ and ‘taboo’ between January 1, 2000, and January 1, 2020.
- 28.
For an exemplar of Sammut’s more balanced approach, see his testimony to the Commonwealth Inquiry into local adoption (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018, p. 16).
- 29.
Four-year-old Chloe Valentine died at the hands of her parents on January 20, 2012.
- 30.
This study could not locate any direct references by Tony Abbott to local adoption before the cited article.
- 31.
Over this period, the Minister’s for Family and Community Services included Gabrielle Upton, Brad Hazzard, Pru Goward (for the second time), and Gareth Ward.
- 32.
Furness resigned from her Director role with Adopt Change in October 2016.
- 33.
The commencement date of the ministerial diary publications (July 2014) partially explains the CIS’s absence (the CIS was purportedly active earlier).
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Hagland, T. (2023). The Centre for Independent Studies: NSW Child Protection and Adoption Laws. In: Think Tanks in Australia. Interest Groups, Advocacy and Democracy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27044-4_9
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