This week Labour’s youth justice spokesperson Jacinda Ardern will table a Care of Children Law Reform Bill, which would require the Law Commission to review and update adoption laws.
The bill would replace the Adoption Act, which is more than 50 years old.
“The current Act fails to recognise that more than three-quarters of children adopted today are not adopted by ‘strangers’ but by wider family, including relatives and long-term partners of the biological parents,” Ardern said.
- Justice Minister Simon Power says he is aware of the need to review current adoption laws, but he has other issues to look at first
- Family First NZ says the purpose of adoption is to provide a family to a child. “The purpose of adoption is not to provide a child to adults,” national director Bob McCoskrie said.
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