Easier adoption of at-risk kids due to ‘Mason laws’

IT will become easier to adopt out children of abusive and neglectful parents under new laws introduced in parliament on Tuesday night in the wake of Mason Jet Lee’s horrific death.

The amendments to the

Child Safety Act make it clear adoption should be genuinely considered if a child cannot be reunited with its parents after two years, except for indigenous children, where adoption remains a last resort only.

The laws will also require audits for all children under three who are in care now, to see if adoption should be pursued. It follows the scathing report into the circumstances around Mason’s death by Coroner Jane Bentley, who found Child Safety officers failed the toddler “in nearly every possible way”.

She recommended adoption be routinely genuinely considered as a suitable option where reunification was unlikely, particularly for children under the three.

Eighty-nine children have been adopted in Queensland over the past three years — 29 in 2018-19, 25 in 2017-18 and 35 in 2016-17. But about 10,000 are in out-of-home care, according to the latest figures.

Child Safety Minister Di Farmer said adoption meant different things to different cultures. “That’s why the bill … cements adoption as the leastpreferred option for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children coming into the Child Safety system,” she said.

The bill’s explanatory notes say adoption is not part of Aboriginal tradition or Islander custom, and had “the potential to infringe upon the unique cultural rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, including connection with families, communities and cultures”.