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The news
The Crisafulli government has been accused of failing to meaningfully respond to concerns from groups helping adopted Queenslanders reconnect with forcibly separated family.
Almost two months since writing to the ministers responsible, the state’s forced adoption support service says the pair were “deflecting responsibility” over the issue.
Dr Jo-Ann Sparrow, president of Jigsaw Queensland, has said the changes wind back information access which allowed her to find her mother in 1991.Credit: Matt Dennien
Jigsaw Queensland only received what it described as a disappointing response from Families Minister Amanda Camm last week after this masthead sought to follow up on its initial revelations.
“It provides no meaningful update, no commitment to restoring access, and no timelines,” Jigsaw president Dr Jo-Ann Sparrow said of the letter from Camm.
Why it matters
Unexpectedly and without consultation, the government made changes in early September to how families separated by the state’s historical child removal practices could access information to try and reunite.
Sparrow said the shift, which included no longer allowing adopted people to trace family names changed through marriage without written parental consent, was the most regressive in three decades.
At the time, Jigwsaw wrote to Attorney-General Deb Frecklington and Camm. Frecklington noted the changes came under Camm’s responsibilities and were needed under a new legal interpretation.
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No response came from Camm. Neither minister gave Brisbane Times a response, either. But that changed this week after this masthead asked Camm’s office about her lack of reply to Jigsaw.
What they said
In her Thursday letter, which came after questions from this masthead on Wednesday, Camm noted she has raised the concerns with Frecklington and suggested further questions go to her department.
In a later statement to Brisbane Times, Camm said she would continue working with Frecklington to address the issues “arising from the change made by the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages”.
“I have responded to Jigsaw Queensland’s correspondence,” she said. “A meeting with Jigsaw Queensland will be organised in due course.”
Another perspective
Sparrow said Camm and Frecklington were “deflecting responsibility … with neither stepping forward to resolve or reverse what is essentially an executive decision by RBDM and [the department]”.
“Meanwhile, people affected by adoption – many of whom have waited decades for answers – remain in distress and uncertainty,” she said.
“Many are up against the clock with time running out as their parents are ageing.
“Instead of leadership, we are seeing reactive, piecemeal responses – scrambling quietly in the background because the media has started asking questions”.
In September, a departmental spokesperson would not be drawn on any specific catalyst for the change and whether other options were considered.
Labor’s shadow attorney-general Meaghan Scanlon accused Camm of “burying her head in the sand and ignoring the people she’s supposed to support”.
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