Only 34 children were adopted in Queensland last year

There were 48 “local” adoptions in Australia, where children had no pre-existing relationship with the adoptive family.

More than nine in 10 of these were “open” adoptions, with all parties agreeing to some form of contact or information exchange between the families.

There were 37 inter-country adoptions – 11 per cent of all adoptions – finalised in Australia in 2019-20.

Almost all came from Asian countries, including 43 per cent from Taiwan, 22 per cent from South Korea, 16 per cent from Thailand, 11 per cent from the Philippines and 5 per cent from Hong Kong.

The coronavirus pandemic stymied domestic and overseas adoptions during the first half of 2020, as a result of travel bans, limitations on non-urgent face-to-face work and…