Australians will be able to adopt children from Poland and Latvia under changes to overseas adoption announced by the Turnbull government.
On Monday, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that Australians would be able to "help provide permanent loving homes" to children in Poland and Latvia if families could not be found in their home countries.
He said while both Eastern European countries had a strong commitment to finding families for children "within their borders", Australian families might also be able to help, particular in the cases of older children, children with medical needs and siblings.
The government is also hopeful that other programs will open soon. This week, Australian officials are travelling to Bulgaria to discuss an arrangement there and are continuing to work with Vietnam on the "development of a possible program".
This comes after the Abbott government pledged to improve the process for intercountry adoptions in late 2013. As part of this, it launched a new national website and hotline for families adopting a child from overseas in May.
Australia currently has adoption programs with 11 countries, including Chile, China, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
But the numbers of overseas adoptions are very low, with only 114 adoptions in 2013-14. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, the median length of time it takes to adopt a child is five years.
In a statement, Mr Turnbull, who has also pledged his support for adoption reform, said the government wanted to improve existing programs.
Foreign Affairs and Immigration Department officials have been sent to countries such as Chile, China and the Philippines to help prospective parents with visas, citizenship and in-country support services.
During adoption awareness week, advocates have also been pressing the government to make it easier for Australians to adopt children locally.
Lovely to see @Deborra_lee & support launch of National Adoption Awareness Week #adoptchange pic.twitter.com/8VqoqsaWRu
— Julie Bishop (@JulieBishopMP)
November 9, 2015
In 2013-14 there were only 203 children adopted locally, despite thousands of children in long-term foster care.
On Monday, adoption advocates including Deborra-lee Furness launched national adoption awareness week at Parliament House in Canberra.
British expert Sir Martin Narey told an audience of adoptive parents and MPs that England had boosted the number of adoptions from 3000 to 5300 a year over the past four years.
He said this was partly due to reforms to the application process, with parents finding out more quickly if they were found suitable for adoption.
Australian Families for Children, a not-for profit group that facilitates overseas adoptions, welcomed the news about Poland and Latvia with caution.
Principal officer Sheri Shenker said some countries with programs still had extremely low numbers of adoptions.
"Although we welcome the announcement of new countries opening up for Australian adopters, we are always a little sceptical when there is an announcement of a new program," Ms Shenker said.
"It is not only about what countries we have programs open in, it is about how we are operating the programs with these countries."
Labor also welcomed the Poland and Latvia announcement, but said "appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent trafficking".
"It is important to note that there is a great deal of evidence that can be learned from adoption practices that have occurred in Australia that must not be forgotten including children's rights to transparency of knowledge of their identity," families spokeswoman Claire Moore and family law spokesman Graham Perrett said.