Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

3. Incorporation of both the ACPP and the role of Aboriginal child care agencies inlegislation.Recognition in policy onlyThe ACPP is incorporated at the level of policy only in New South Wales,Tasmania, Western Australia and Queensland. Policy directs officers of the departmentrecommending a placement. It does not necessarily direct the work of non-governmentadoption agencies. Unlike legislation it cannot direct the court ultimately making theadoption order. Moreover, the NSW policy has been in draft form since 1987 and hasnever been formally adopted.The NSW draft policy does not set out the ACPP. It merely directs that Aboriginalchildren surrendered for adoption be placed with Aboriginal families. In Tasmania thepolicy restates the ACPP in the form adopted by the 1986 Social Welfare Ministers’Conference. It further directs departmental officers that the Aboriginal Family Supportand Care Program is to be involved in the assessment and planning for all Indigenouschildren.In WA the policy which is relied on to address adoption applies clearly only to thesituation where the child is in need of care and protection and substitute care is beingconsidered. It sets out the ACPP and requires that an Aboriginal child only be placed in anon-Aboriginal family or institution with the approval of the Director General. Such aplacement ‘should contribute to the best possible retention of the child’s relationship withhis parents and community, including regular contact’. The policy directs departmentalofficers to consult the Aboriginal child care agency (Yorganop) about placement issues inthe metropolitan area.Queensland legislation does not reflect the ACPP. The Adoption of Children Act1984 (Qld) simply directs the Director, who makes the adoption order, to place a childfrom any ethnic background with an adopter from a similar background, unless such anadopter is unavailable or the welfare and best interests of the child, in the Director’sopinion, would not be best served by adoption in a family of the same background(section 18A).The Act does not require preference to be given to the child’s extended family, withfurther options in order being another person in the correct relationship to the child,another member of the child’s Indigenous community and, finally, another Indigenousfamily as the ACPP requires. Regulations made in 1988 direct attention to the ability ofthe prospective adoptive parents to ‘develop or maintain the child’s indigenous ethnic orcultural identity’ as one criterion for assessing the suitability of particular adoptiveparents (Schedule 6).Queensland departmental policy spells out the ACPP preferences in a way verysimilar to that of WA. Unlike the WA policy, however, it specifically refers to adoptionas raising issues distinct from child protection. Thus, in the case of a proposedrelinquishment for adoption, the parent(s) is to be counselled by an Indigenous worker