Current laws do not have enough safeguards: associate justice minister
The newly introduced Adoption Amendment Bill immediately and temporarily suspends New Zealand’s recognition of unsafe international adoptions by this country’s citizens and residents for citizenship and immigration purposes under s 17 of the Adoption Act 1955.
“The Government is progressing this change under urgency as any delay is unacceptably prolonging the risk to children and young people,” said Nicole McKee, associate justice minister, in the government’s news release.
“The temporary suspension will provide the time to develop and pass law that ensures international adoptions are safe for the children and young people involved,” McKee added.
In its news release, the government said the amendment bill will likewise limit the Family Court’s ability to grant adoptions if the adoptive parent or child is overseas under s 3 of the Adoption Act.
McKee explained that the changes seek to protect children and young people – who are adopted outside New Zealand and brought into unsafe situations – from preventable harm and abuse in the future.
“There is evidence that our international adoption laws do not provide sufficient safeguards for children and young people,” McKee said. “Adoptions that take place in overseas courts do not always access or require an adoptive parent’s criminal or child protection record.”
McKee acknowledged cases where those with known care and protection histories or prior violence or sexual abuse convictions found ways to adopt children and young people overseas and take them to New Zealand, where they faced neglect, abuse, or exploitation.
“For example, Joseph Auga Matamata, who was sentenced to 11 years in 2020, had previous convictions for violence when he adopted three boys from overseas,” McKee said. “He withdrew one boy, aged 12, from school, covering his tracks by saying that he had returned to his home country.”
McKee noted that the boy remained locked up, worked in a field or as if he were a domestic servant, and often received no medical care, while the other two boys climbed up a fence and managed to flee in the middle of the night.
“This case is the tip of the iceberg,” McKee lamented. “It is completely unacceptable for our international adoption laws to be used in this way.”
The government noted that the temporary suspension will expire on the date the Governor-General determines via an Order in Council or on 1 July 2027, whichever comes first.
In the government’s news release, McKee said she intends to introduce a 2026 bill, which will ensure a long-term solution and enable members of the public to provide pertinent submissions to a select committee.
McKee noted that both the short-term and long-term changes will involve the Ministry of Justice; the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment; the Department of Internal Affairs; Oranga Tamariki; and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
“While most children adopted through international channels are adopted into loving families, some children and young people have been adopted into unsafe family environments and subjected to neglect, exploitation or abuse,” the justice ministry said.
“I recognise that the suspension will be disappointing for some families planning to adopt from overseas, most of whom are caring people who adopt with the best of intentions,” McKee said. “Recognising this, the Government is taking steps to preserve adoption pathways where it has been able to establish that the arrangements for international adoptions are safe.”
McKee noted that:
