70 years on:  Reporting back on New Zealand’s outdated Adoption Act 1955

Adoption Action marked 70 years since the passing of the Adoption Act 1955 with a hui in Wellington on 6 November, which paired personal testimonies with research to expose seven decades of secrecy, shame and the lifelong disconnection this law has inflicted on adopted people and their whānau.

The 1955 Adoption Act, largely unchanged since it was passed, reflects post-WWII norms shaped by Victorian colonial values and the stigma associated with ex-nuptial births – unwed mothers carried the shame of being pregnant and single, and their children were labelled ‘illegitimate’.

The Act continues to legally sever children from their natural families by producing a second birth certificate creating a legal fiction and deeming the child ‘as if … born to’ the adopting parents.

Adopted people, under Aotearoa’s current adoption laws, don’t have the same access to their official identity records as non-adopted people. “They face legal barriers to information about their past which prevents them from knowing their history and whakapapa, all central elements of wellbeing and belonging” says Adoption Action co-convenor Susan Atkin.

Adoption Action, and other advocates, stressed that the Act does not meet Aotearoa’s obligations to Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and is inconsistent with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 and international human rights conventions, including the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Despite repeated attempts, New Zealand’s domestic adoption laws have seen no major overhaul since the implementation of the Adult Adoption Information Act 1985. Adoption Action has compiled a 48‑year chronology of attempts at reform, consultations and stalled initiatives aimed at modernising adoption law. In 2013, Adoption Action took a case to the Human Rights Tribunal which, in 2016 found that the Adoption Act 1955 breached both the Human Rights Act 1993 and the Bill of Rights Act 1990. In 2024, the Ministry of Justice wrote to Justice Ministers Nicole McKee and Paul Goldsmith (paragraph 3) that, ‘The Act has not been substantially updated since it was passed and is no longer fit for purpose, including not reflecting trends in intercountry adoption, or modern adoption practices. The Act also does not comply with our international obligations and is not consistent with other domestic child-centred legislation.’

“Adoption Action supports the Government passing the Adoption Amendment Act 2025 under urgency on 16 September this year. This Act placed an interim suspension on international adoptions under Section 17 of the Adoption Act 1955, as Section 17 had been used to traffic children into Aotearoa. That suspension needed to happen. However, comprehensive reform of the Adoption Act 1955 is urgently needed to address the other harms caused by the 1955 Act and to ensure today’s children, and all people impacted by adoption, have their rights, wellbeing, kinship and whakapapa honoured” says Adoption Action co-convenor Fiona Donoghue.

The hui was attended by adopted people, reform advocates, people working in Aotearoa’s adoption communities, representatives from government agencies, and, for a morning session, the Hon Minister McKee. The Opening Address was delivered by the Children’s Commissioner, Claire Achmad.

Adoption Action Hui 6 November 2025 Slides

ENDS

Media contact: AdoptionActionInc@gmail.com