Parents left in dark over orphanage deal

The Attorney General’s department has denied leaving prospective adoptive parents in the dark over the termination of an agreement with the only Ethiopian orphanage Australia uses.

During a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday night, Liberal senator Gary Humphries asked department official Peter Arnaudo why prospective adoptive parents had not been told the agreement was terminated.

Senator Humphries referred to documents that were released under freedom of information (FOI) that said the department had terminated the agreement in November 2011.

He said there were scores of Australian families who had been waiting to adopt children for five to seven years who were not told about the changed circumstances.

He quoted an email among the FOI documents from an official that said the department would not be announcing the termination publicly until a new agreement could be reached with another orphanage.

“We do not want to create further angst amongst waiting families,” Senator Humphries read from the email.

Mr Arnaudo said the department had tried to keep parents up-to-date and it was working on new arrangements.

“The agreement wasn’t terminated, it expired, it was a 12-month agreement,” he told the hearing.

Senator Humphries said families had been left in the dark about the decision.

“People weren’t told they shouldn’t deal with this orphanage,” he said.

The Legal and Constitutional Affairs committee hearings continues.

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