Proposed changes to adoption fees

Child Safety Minister Desley Boyle today released a regulatory impact statement outlining proposed changes to adoption fees.

“I’ve recently announced that the adoption register will re-open on October 29 and this time for two years to give people more time to decide if they want to adopt.

“It’s proposed the changes to fees would take effect from October 15 - a fortnight before the register re-opens.

“We have considered changing fees for some time because the State Government charges have not been increased in line with the Consumer Price Index since 2002.

“As the fees stand now they recover only a fraction of the costs of providing adoption services.

“For example in 2005-06 fees represented only about 15% of the cost of intercountry adoption services and 2.5% of the cost of relative adoption services.

“Assessing the suitability of a person or a couple to be adoptive parents is an extremely important task but also one that is complex and costly. At least five interviews are conducted and information about a person is analysed including their life skills, knowledge and experiences, qualities and strengths, and ability to respond to challenging events in a positive way.

“In the case of intercountry adoptions we also need to provide regular reports to overseas authorities. Assessments are conducted one month, four months, seven months and 10 months after the placement,” Ms Boyle said.

The changes proposed are to:

• increase the application and expression of interest fees for all adoption programs from $53 to $60
• increase the assessment fee for the Intercountry Adoption Program from $2,000 to $3,500
• introduce a post placement supervision fee for the Intercountry Adoption Program of $1,500
• increase the assessment fee for relative children’s adoptions from $146.30 to $450 (relative adoptions enable a child’s relative or step parent to apply to adopt the child)
• remove the application fee of $50 payable by a person seeking identifying information about an adopted person or birth parent (this is consistent with government policy not to charge citizens for information about their personal affairs held by a government agency).

Under the proposed changes the state government fee for an intercountry adoption would be $5,060 which is less than New South Wales ($9,700), South Australia ($8,512), NT ($6,600) and Victoria ($6,561). The relative adoption fee would be $510 which is less than WA ($650).

Members of the public are invited to comment on the regulatory impact statement before the closing date Friday, 31 August 2007.

Details about how to provide comments are set out in the regulatory impact statement, which is available on the Department of Child Safety’s website www.childsafety.qld.gov.au or by telephoning (07) 3836 0452.

Ends

Media contact: 3224 7477
3 August 2007