Mr WILLIAMS (Attorney-General) (9:13 PM) —in reply—In drawing this debate to a conclusion, I thank the honourable members for Banks (Mr Melham), Fisher (Mr Slipper), Dickson (Mr Tony Smith) and Capricornia (Mr Marek) for their contributions and their support of the Family Law Amendment Bill (No. 1) 1998 . Members may have been concerned about an article in today's press concerning the illegal traffic in domestic adoptions some years ago. This obviously brought anguish to the young women who gave up their babies in a time of different social attitudes.

The legislation before us deals with intercountry adoption. It is proposed, under the legislation, to establish best practice in respect of such adoption, and the types of difficulties referred to in the article in today's media would not occur once the convention has been adhered to by Australia. Australia should be in a position to ratify the Hague convention as soon as the report of the Joint Standing Committee on Treaties becomes available.

The states and territories have agreed with the Commonwealth on the implementation arrangements for Australia's participation in the convention and are hopeful that the treaty can commence operation by 1 November this year. The states and territories will also be grateful for the amendments which provide for the automatic recognition of adoptions ordered in China, pursuant to the bilateral arrangement between the Australian states and territories and China. As soon as this legislation is in place, the bilateral arrangement with China can be completed and another avenue for adoption for Australian parents will become available. Both these developments provide the opportunity for significant numbers of Australian citizens to give children living in institutions overseas in participating countries a family environment in which to grow and prosper.

The government is indebted to the opposition for the offer of facilitating a speedy passage through the Senate. On that basis it should be possible, all other things being equal, for the bill to be dealt with as a non-contentious bill later this week in the Senate.

The member for Dickson (Mr Tony Smith) and the member for Capricornia (Mr Marek) referred to the desire of many Australian couples to adopt children. It is worth pointing out, as I did in my second reading speech, that there are currently approximately 300 adoptions each year from overseas. The number is limited because there are few bilateral arrangements in place. Ratification of the Hague Convention on intercountry adoption will open up opportunities for increased numbers of children to be adopted by Australian parents. Currently, 22 countries have adhered to the convention, and some of these are potentially large sources for intercountry adoption. The number of participating countries is expected to grow appreciably in the next few years, providing, we hope, even more opportunities for Australian couples to adopt children from overseas. This bill has the support of the whole House, so far as views have been made known, and I commend the bill to the House.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Bill read a second time.