'Why can't I have my baby tomorrow?': A legislative periodisation of intercountry adoption in Victoria and Australia from the early 1970s to the present

Intercountry adoption involves relatively small and currently declining numbers. But it is a platform for Australia s engagement with the wider world, and a highly contested field. Efforts to rationalise and regulate the field have to reconcile many competing interests, inside and outside Australia. This periodic overview focuses on government responses to the evolving practice of intercountry adoption from the end of the Vietnam War, charting the emergence of the current regulatory regime. It uses Victoria as a case study, to show the intricacies of a split state/federal jurisdiction, the challenge of transnational regulation in a globalised world, the flow-on effect of enabling legislation, and the impact of public scandals.