We have submitted on an Overseas Adoptions Legislation Bill.

By: Jill Ovens - Women’s Rights Party co-leader and national secretary.

23 June 2026

The Women’s Rights Party focuses on issues that directly impact on women and girls, including women’s sex-based rights. We recognise that such interests are wide ranging, which is why we comment on women’s healthcare, our children’s education, and recognition of women’s contributions to society.

We have also submitted to Select Committees on the lack of focus on women in the government’s proposed mental health and well-being strategy, on the extreme threat of men in women’s prisons, on the Stats NZ data collection approach and content for the census, and on legislation to liberalise surrogacy.

We are committed to ensuring New Zealand legislation reflects the commitment of our Government to the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) ^[1] and to the Convention on the Rights of the Child. [2]

Thus, we put in a submission today on the Overseas Adoptions Legislation Bill in support of changes to strengthen New Zealand law and to protect adopted infants, children and young people from potential harm. Several Women’s Rights Party members are of the generation where ‘single mothers’, many of them teenagers, were pressured into putting their babies up for adoption, or members were themselves adopted, with lifelong consequences for both the mothers and their babies, who are now adults.

The Women’s Rights Party is committed to infant and child safeguarding, and we agree this should come first. Proposals to close loopholes that result in children being adopted into unsafe environments are both urgent and necessary, as we saw in the high-profile case of the abuse of children adopted from Samoa,[3] which is why the government, in September 2025, temporarily suspended international adoptions from some countries. [4] [5]

Family First says recent cases in New Zealand have exposed serious loopholes in the system— loopholes and flaws that have left children vulnerable to abuse, exploitation, and trafficking.[6]

They say issues include:

No background checks: Adoptive parents overseas have not been required to

• undergo criminal or child protection screening.

• ·Bypassing domestic safeguards: Individuals with histories of violence or sexual abuse have been able to adopt children abroad and bring them into New Zealand.

• Lack of oversight: There is no reliable data on how many of the ~1,000 children adopted internationally each year are being mistreated or exploited.

In our submission we pointed out the potentially serious safeguarding issues associated with surrogacy, which is currently formalized through an adoption process. We have previously submitted on the Improving Arrangements for Surrogacy Bill (in September 2024). We said at the time that we are unequivocally opposed to international surrogacy:

“International surrogacy, both commercial and altruistic, is a complex and evolving area which raises significant ethical, legal and social issues. The birth of a baby to a surrogate mother in one country, where the intending, and often genetic, parents are from another country, involves enormous legal complexities.[7]

For example, in the United Kingdom where commercial surrogacy is illegal (as it is in New Zealand), surrogacy brokering services connect so-called “commissioning parents” with potential surrogates in countries where commercial surrogacy is legal.

In addition to this, surrogate mothers often live in countries where there are weak regulations and laws around surrogacy, and poor health standards. This increases the risk of humanitarian problems — where the surrogate mother and child may be vulnerable, and their rights not well-protected.”

The Bill being considered will replace the temporary ban on international adoptions, and the proposal is to provide exemptions for countries with adequate safeguards. We pointed out that assessment of such safeguards in the case of international surrogacy must include the safety of birth mothers and their infants.

The Bill focuses on people with criminal or known care and protection issues who are unsuitable either to adopt an infant or child, or to obtain an infant through surrogacy. But some apparently respectable people have been able to adopt babies, including through surrogacy. The UK case of 13-month-old Preston Davey, who died at the hands of Jamie Varley, his adoptive father, after months of sexual abuse, physical assault and psychological torment, highlights the very real potential for exploitation of an infant. [8] Varley was a secondary school teacher. In fact, it is well known that paedophiles often take on positions that give them access to vulnerable children.

We cannot stress enough that the welfare and best interests of the child must be the primary concern when we are talking about adoption and surrogacy. The Bill needs to protect the safety, wellbeing, and rights of babies and young children, particularly where adoption is used to formalise international surrogacy arrangements, as in our current law.

The Women’s Rights Party NZ strongly supports a robust child-centred system, and all measures to prevent harm and exploitation. However, we remain concerned there may still be unintended unmitigated risks for infants and children.

We support stronger domestic safeguards, and we are concerned that ‘commissioning parents’ may engage in overseas surrogacy arrangements without appropriate safeguards. The model of surrogacy being proposed accepts international surrogacy without sufficiently interrogating the best interests of the infant, and this is one of the reasons we oppose international surrogacy.

The deliberate creation of arrangements involving planned separation of an infant from its mother is not in the best interests of the child. The Bill does not appear to adequately address failed surrogacy arrangements, or children caught up in cross-country disputes.

We are also concerned about the exploitation of surrogate mothers, particularly in countries with limited or no protections. It is our view that surrogacy arrangements, whether commercial or altruistic, can never be free of exploitation of women’s reproductive capacities. Nor can we eliminate the coercive element inherent in the practice of surrogacy.

The Bill takes important steps to address historical harms in overseas adoption, but by supporting surrogacy arrangements it risks embedding a framework that continues to accept what we consider are avoidable risks to infants and children. Decisions should be driven by consistent child protection thresholds, rather than adult desires and circumstances.

[1]Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cedaw.aspx

[2] Convention on the Rights of the Child. Convention on the Rights of the Child | OHCHR

[3] Hawke’s Bay enslaver and human trafficker Joseph Matamata granted parole | RNZ

[4] Nicole McKee On The Changes To Adoption Laws

[5] New Zealand tightens international adoptions, Samoa most affected | RNZ

[6] Changes to adoption laws keep children at the core - Family First NZ

[7] Oranga Tamariki et al, Information Fact Sheet: International Surrogacy.

[8] Teacher who murdered adopted baby son Preston Davey given whole life prison sentence - BBC News

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