SAVING THE KIDS FROM PARRENTS

I DON'T generally see eye to eye with Bronwyn Bishop, but I do see
merit in her proposal to take children aged under five away from
drug-addicted parents and put them up for adoption.

The suggestion, which focuses on parents whose drug use is the
subject of a child protection notification, was one of several
announced in a parliamentary report released by Ms Bishop (pictured below).

Extreme? Sure. Interventionist? Without a doubt. Worth considering? Absolutely.

For far too long our focus on the drug user has been to the detriment
of the children.

This is wrong in so many ways. Addiction, no matter its nature or the
fierceness of its grip, is, at its core, a choice.

Choice is a luxury unknown to a child of a drug-addicted mother.
Moments after taking its first breath, the child enters the hell of withdrawal.

Just because you can have children doesn't mean you should.
Especially if you're hopelessly addicted to illegal drugs.

Working for the Salvos taught me this, so don't tell me substance
abuse is not behind the increasing number of children entering the
child protection system in Australia.

Many of them come through the Salvos' revolving door. Again and again
and again.

In Victoria, according to children's charity Barnardos Australia,
some two-thirds of parents in cases of abuse and neglect had
substance abuse problems.

No one is arguing that addiction is not an illness and that those
under its influence should not be treated with respect and care.

But it does beg the question that when an addict's own needs are
all-consuming, how on earth can they meet the needs of their children?

The answer is closer to home than you think. Take a stroll down Smith
St or Victoria St in Melbourne. It gets to you when you see a child
under five playing with cigarette butts on the pavement while her
parents are busy scoring.

To those parents who have managed to kick the habit, good on them. It
is no easy road to recovery and help must be on hand if the parent relapses.

But how many relapses before a mother or father is no longer a proper
parent? And how long can a child wait?

The sad irony is that as the number of children needing care
continues to rise, more and more foster carers are abandoning the system.

A 2003 review by the Victorian Department of Human Services found
that almost 900 foster carers left the system in 2001-02 and there
are too few recruits to replace them.

Many of those remaining are long-time carers looking after an average
of 39 children each.

At the time of the report there were just over 3000 foster parents in Victoria.

One of the main reasons for the exodus was the growing number of
"increasingly difficult children" because of their parents' substance abuse.

And yet there's a group of Australians who, given half a chance,
would welcome these kids into their lives in a heart beat.

These are couples who are often casualties themselves. Casualties of
the fertility lottery.

The reality is that loving couples are missing out on being parents
and children are missing out on a childhood.

The suggestions of the inquiry headed by Bronwyn Bishop are shocking,
but no more shocking than the death of nine children last year.

The children were left in parental care despite a sibling being
placed under state protection.

Shocked? We should be appalled.

This isn't about breaking up families. It is about saving children's lives.

As German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, the test of the
morality of a society is what it does for its children.

The inquiry may well be the drug debate's toughest test.

But the point isn't so much whether we pass the test, it is whether
we accept that we are failing the children.

JEN VUK is a Melbourne writer and commentator