Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive! Marmion, Sir Walter Scott, 1808

We’d like to acknowledge Keith Griffith and Mary Iwanek, both now sadly passed away, and Robert Ludbrook, now retired and living in Auckland, for their tireless efforts championing for the reform the Adoption legislation in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Here is a chronology of law reform efforts since 1977 - Developed by Robert Ludbrook.

July 2023

Minister Kiritapu Allen resigned from her Cabinet portfolios following being charged with reckless driving, resisting arrest and having a breath alcohol level above the legal limit when the car she was driving was involved in an accident on 23 July 2023. Minister Jinny Andersen is holding the Justice portfolio until the general election in October 2023.

June 2023

The Ministry of Justice have updated the wording on the Adoption Law Reform page that indicates a change to the previous timeframe for ‘a final package of proposals to be presented [to the Minister] in the first half of 2023.’ It now reads that the Ministry ’will provide advice to the Minister of Justice in due course.’

May 2023 update

The 13 May 2023 One News report about Jenny Small finding the whānau she was separated from by adoption 60 years ago, is heart breaking.  Jenny’s treatment was appalling on so many levels. 

In the 13 May 2023 report the Hon Kiri Allan, Minister of Justice, gave the first indication since taking up the Justice portfolio in June 2023, of her time frames for delivering on Labour’s commitment, to deliver a new adoption Bill to the House before the end of this term (Oct 2023). The Hon Kiri Allan told reporters in the 13 May One News report that '....a bill won't be introduced before the next election...".

We are not aware that any of the people who participated in the Ministry of Justice’s 2021 and 2022 public consultation and engagement processes to inform adoption law reform in Aotearoa New Zealand, have been updated about this time frame by the Hon Kiri Allan or the Ministry of Justice.

We’re now into the fifth decade of asking successive governments to reform the Adoption Act 1955.

May 2023 - Annie Oxborough Birth Registration Bill - First Reading

On 10 May 2023 the First Reading of the Annie Oxborough Birth Parents Registration Bill was read in Parliament and passed unanimously.

Annie was adopted in 1971 and her legal birth certificate names her parents as the couple that adopted her.  Annie sought to have her natural parents name on her legal birth certificate and the only way that this is possible is by an Act of Parliament.  

Chris Penk, the National MP for Kaipara ki Mahurangi, brought the Private Members Bill to the House and asked that the Governance and Administration Committee report back to the House on the Bill by 19 July 2023.

A number of MPs spoke of their personal experience of adoption including David Clarke who spoke of his mother’s search for her natural parents.  

December 2022 update

Requests for time frames relating to the law reform process were made to the Ministry of Justice and the Minister of Justice in October and November 2022. No detailed time frames were given. However, the Ministry of Justice website states that feedback from the 2021 and 2022 consultation will inform their advice to the Minister of Justice which will contain a final package of proposals to be presented in the first half of 2023. (See June 2023 update above for latest info)

At this late stage, and in light of the time needed to comply with the processes needed to enact law change, it is looking increasingly likely that no change to legislation will occur during this Government’s term.

It is now 68 years since the Adoption Act 1955 was passed and almost as long since the call for reform was first made.

Ministry of Justice Adoption Law reform consultation 2021-2022

The Ministry began consultation in 2021 with groups and individuals the Ministry identified as having an interest in adoption law reform in Aotearoa New Zealand. Targeted consultation was also undertaken for the Ministry by MartinJenkins focusing on Māori, Samoan communities and young people. MartinJenkins December 2021 final report can be accessed here.

Concurrently, the Ministry engaged Malatest to undertake a series of focus groups to gather people’s views on what the future of adoption might look like. The Malatest report, Adoption Law Reform - a synthesis of focus group findings August 2022, was received by us in April 2023 following an Official Information Request in April and can be accessed here.

The Ministry has published two consultation documents and two summary reports. The 2021 reports can be accessed here, and the 2022 reports can be accessed here.

We will provide updates on the Ministry’s progress with the reform work.

Views on adoption reform…

Advocates blast lack of lived experience informing Aotearoa's adoption law reform - Newshub Nation 7 Aug 2021

Interview with Annabel Ahuriri-Driscoll, a lecturer in Māori health at Canterbury University, whose PhD investigated the concept of identity in Māori adoptees. And filmmaker Barbara Sumner who wrote a memoir about adoption called Tree of Strangers. Both women were adopted.

Surrogacy law and practice in Aotearoa New Zealand requires the child created through surrogacy to be adopted by the intending parents. Therefore it is important to know what current thinking is in this area, the current surrogacy law and the work being undertaken to reform surrogacy legislation. You can read more about surrogacy here and the Law Commission’s Report 146 Te Kōpū Whāngai: He Arotake Review of Surrogacy published in 2022.

Jacinda Arden presented a Bill to the House in 2013 called the Care of Children Law Reform Bill in an attempt to address the many concerns people had raised with her about the draconian 1955 Adoption Act. While the Bill did not pass the First Reading and was not well presented, the discussion in the House is important to the history of adoption law and society views and priorities at the time. The transcript and videos from the debate in the House about the Bill can be accessed here.