MEDIA RELEASE

9 March 2016

Adoption Laws Should Be Maintained - For Sake of Children

Family First NZ is rejecting calls for adoption laws to be overhauled, labeling the calls flawed and unnecessary, and says that the current Act is focused on appropriate protections and the long-term welfare and rights of children.

“There is no need to overhaul the current law because the Adoption Act isn’t broken. What the proposals are really about is removing appropriate protections and focusing on the rights of adults rather than the rights of children. There is no shortage of suitable married couples wanting to adopt. There may be room for tweaking the Act around the issue of open versus closed adoptions and better recognition of whangai adoptions, but proposals to substantially overhaul the Act are not in the best interests of children,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

“Single parent and same sex couple adoption where there is no biological connection and surrogacy potentially harms children because it intentionally creates motherless and fatherless families - all at the same time as we express concern at the high rates of absent fathers and solo parent households.”

“Age limitations and restrictions on gender are safeguards put in the original Act for good reason and should not be removed.”

“While a compassionate and caring society should come to the aid of children who have lost their father and/or mother, it is dangerous ground to intentionally give children no father or no mother. Who wants to tell a 15-year-old boy that we didn’t think he needed a dad, or a 14-year-old girl that we don’t think she needs a mum?” says Mr McCoskrie.

“A child has a right to a mother and a father. Death, divorce and disaster may not always deliver that, but we should not set out in public policy to deny a child that basic right. The two most loving and capable women in the world simply cannot provide a daddy - and two men cannot provide a mum," says Mr McCoskrie.

"This is not a sexuality issue. This is a gender issue. The gender of the parents does matter to a child."

An independent poll of 1,000 New Zealanders in 2013 by Curia Market Research found majority support for families with both a mum and a dad having priority for adoptions. Respondents were asked “Should families where there is both a mum and a dad have priority for the adoption of babies and children?” 52% of respondents say that families with both a mum and a dad should have priority for adoptions - 38% disagreed.

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