Senate inquiry into forced adoptions found barbaric, horrific abuses

In the Northernstar a local magazine there is an article about Forced Adoptions.
It refers people affected by depression or anxiety to Lifeline. My partner and I were very concerned about this.
Not being involved, yet curious, as Forced Adoptions and the causes and effects are very profound trauma and need doctor referred specialist treatments,Lifeline should not have been placed on the websiite except for abosolute emergency advice and referrals only.

We understand many are suffering futher, and our heart goes out to them, and also to those who are traumatised because this horror has been publicly shown and this includes people who were not directly affected by Forced adoptions.
I would say there is need for people to start treating the idea of the birth mothers and their offspring without trivial piecemeal, and suggesting therapy with the seriousness it needs, and not refer anyone to a service that is very limited and for quick fix emergency help only.
Referrals are a must.

We rang Lifeline to ask about this and they have referred us to Northernstar, that's where it began so that's where it should be corrected yet we're not about to waste our time with a local mag. disseminating information that is not adequate for such a serious matter as forced adoptions.
Thankyou

We cannot today hurt the vulnerable in forced adoptions or anywhere else without not only being questioned as well as without very strident investigations taking place.
See what's happening internationally and the stories all match.
Neck tread the vulnerable and there are the conscionable standing by to protest loud and clear.
Principles, ethics, humanity, humane actions and healing those who suffer are on the top of the conscionable's to do list. Their numbers are enormous their influence undeniable.
Arthur

I'm sorry my mouth can't work but I want to know if this is all about politicians grandstanding and not caring a damn about the people they serve, or otherwise.
I am also sorry but I donlt care for living in a world devoid of humanity. I can opt out any time now.
A barrister goes out with me as I am his shoulder bag but law is so black and white.
We've just been to an afternooon function where I'm without a voice.
When I serve people they are my priority and I've served plenty of all walks of life. When my companion serves people they are in it for only one thing money. How dare-LESS.
I'm no longer a mermaid but I sure as hell can see there are people in this world who suck and don't CARE about their feloow man.
Amogtst these are the ambitious polticians.
When i read Tony Abbott has a lesbian sister all I could care about was her.
What's wrong with fanmiles?
How on earth and it;s now known as a precious earth, that siblings don't even care about their natuarl MOTHERS and SISTERS and BROTHERS.
I'm wesry beyond my years and capabilities, I maybe die but many will have and hear this message.
A birth mother and a mother of someone who is my second child and has lost in death tragically.
Move over Origins and all you wankers who are in it for money.
Can I tell you I grew up with oddles of this and it's nothing, nothing compared to LOVE.

Not Dare-less, I meant CARE-LESS, barristers are always dare-less, and too often care-less, take examples from Australian politiocians (J.G. is a lawyer) who sound like Pauline Hanson, and lawyers who are meamt to defend and look after our felllow cotizens overseas and in Australia not their own ambitious self interests.
I wonder do Origins and the other so called support groups who flounder think there are other human rights besides Forced sadoptions Human rights?
Focus on one issue and you disregard all human rights issues are interrelated. We are all connected, no matter how some would wish otherwise.
We are all connected and there's no getting away from this.
If you do massive many affecting wrongs they throw back at the doers, every time.
It's a timeless truth.

There's no question now Abbott and Nile are soul mates as their bigotry, intolerable negative bias, money as all, and prejudices are way, way, way out of line.
How dare any citizen, but any citizen, including Abbott and Nile knock a gay relationship or person in this Forced Adoption social issue or any other HUMAN issue.
How do they both connect? they are interconnected, except of cause in the Hanson backward yobbo etreme right bible belt and their comrades.
Shame, shame, shame

I have read the comments here and now see somepeople like Origins Inc. deserve to have at least a money grant to able them to do their ongoing 'support' work with professionals.
They have done a lot of work to contrbute to this one social injustice and not spread themselves thin with other social issues.
I for one back that this organisation rather than say P.A.R.C.S. recieve funding to do good work, with qualified people employed to help tose who need professional support.
Compensation is also due to all those who feel justifiable anger and are still at the humiliation stage of their grief.
The guilt stage also.
It's a big social injustice and deserves a lot of reparation and follow through with tangible input.
For the person who spoke about the politicians, I can hear your anger at the terrible discrimination and divisions and sibling rivalrys, and feel with and for you.
Don't give up the good fight.
Other people's negative biases don't let them hurt you as you are obviously in dark distress (the black dog has got you) and very sensitive, turn to positive caring people in your life and don't waste your precious time writing about the others.
Hope this is heard and also helps.
Politicians who discriminate publicly on the base of things the Human Rights Commission have raised as prejudicial wrongs would do well to keep their views to themselves, otherwise more and more will say what is was the birth mother said and will be heard.

I'm at a friends who has openly said she's spelt it out about her views on bigotry and negative bias.
I support this woman as she is ill, fragile and on medecines to recover from what has recently been a nightmare for her.
She is one of the forced adoptions targets and one whose done a lot to contribute time ago.
Back off from her with your intrusions and allow her to heal.
Unlike those who are smiling because of the Inquiry and Report this woman has a deeper sensitivity and needs a lot of support to get beyond her black dog and more.
I vouch for her character and would in court.
If she's made comments about people with negative bias it's because there is freedom of speech in Australia and politicians might do well to work with politics rather than family dynamics.
Bias toward gay people seems to have come back with a vengence and it's as disgraceful according to Human Rights Commission and all conscionable people as was and is bias against unmarried women and girls.
Why hurt people further when they are already hurting.
I have to pick up the pieces of my friends hurt and this in turns affects others.
Politicians have to understand if they choose to be in those roles they will be judged if they ever hurt by words of discrimination, that's only reasonable.
Regarding forced adoptions, my friend at this time needs care not other people's brutal intrusions and hurts.
The black dog attacks, yet it doesn't ultimately use discriminating antics to divide humanity.
We all need to step back and start caring, not hurting.

I appreciate the message the original mothers have been trying to send, when they say we were wanted and were not given away. Unfortunately, some of us have been told that we were given away by choice. Maybe there weren't many options available but the choice was still made. There also seems to be a perception that because we were brought up by others we belong to them forever but we don't. Adoptees often feel split as though they are not quite part of any family. It is like a second abandonment when we don't have the opportunity to be a part of our birth families' lives. I am lucky to have paperwork, a few photos and some half remembered conversations but there are many who have no information.

Money wouldn't heal me and although I get therapy, there is nothing available specific for adoption issues. It is a topic that is taboo to be talked about as well. I hope the government will act on the recommendations soon and not let the report mean nothing. For those who keep it all a secret, who couldn't make a submission and maybe couldn't even watch the Four Corners show in front of their family, I hope you find healing.

My therapist was tutored at university by the eminent Dr. Geoffrey Rickarby who is now very well known for his remarkable observations, many years working with, and understaning beyond the norm of Forced adoptions.
Geoffrey also taught other students who became professionals, and thereby there are therapists out there who do have expertise in this area of forced adoptions.
Unfortunately Dr. Geoff Rickary himself has a workload that prevents any further services, however, those he tutored into their professional positions exist.

Wow, it's a rare mother who loses her infant by 'choice', was it like in 'Sophie's Choice?'
I'm being mean, I suppose there may be the few who are totally insensitive unmaternal unloving and never want a baby by 'choice'. You must be relatng your sad truth and it's more than sad.
I found that remark terribly sad and not usual.
There may be more to that story though if the person investigated it found out.
Was she raped to the extreme, meaning by a relative or something.
And who would tell their grown child they didn't want them, unless they were in a fit of rage beyond comprehension.
This is all for the person under header curse of never belonging.
The one point you raised that rings bells is ultimately we all grow up and move away from our first family, even if ties that bind remain strong or for certian individuals not so strong.
Someone mentioned family Adherence versus Autonomy in adulthood, it's worth looking at that concept as different people choose there.
Best wishes to the person who is searching for family and I hope you heal really well. Congratulations for having the utter courage to enter therapy. It's what everyone should do. The world would be a better place if that were so.

Many people didn't make a 'submission' because they don't trust faceless and uncaring (possibly) politicians.
Othere were told it wasn't wise by their counsellors as the material was too complex, sensitive, personal and not for public comsumption for their clients/patients.
Rare few have made their own individual 'submissions' long before any parliamentary inquiries came about and it was very costly emotionally, time wise and financially.
We now see there were and are the caring politicians today, but the real truth or not of this will be told us all if the Report is really followed through as you suggest, the recommendations. If it's shelved they didn't and don't care. Latter wouldn't mean the story ends there or the social cause stops, it can't now.

Forced adoptions is an extremely sensitive social issue and one that many would not make public submissions to.
The reason being the whole procedures were beyond any normal obstetric and gyno. practices and highly illegal.
The victimised were traumatised beyond anything imaginable for too many.
Those who hardened up could submit and find it all easy.
Others are going through living hells at this time just as when it all happened.
Respect this.
James

I cannot emphasise more how bullying in it's most obscene and trauma inducing was forced adoptions and the many thousands of them is appalling. Bullying of the natural mothers and therefore also their in-utero and then newborn infants.
Address the bully's and the bully's need to stop now and step back and make amends.
Abi(gail)

In regards a comment by James, I don't think anyone found it or finds it easy to tell or re-tell their story of forced adoptions. Neither do I think anyone who has or will do is hardened, though you may mean able to at this time be strong enough to express their stories.
It is a hard ask for people to give this without knowing who they are giving it too.
Though the senators seemed to be all with a lot of care it appears.
Many people are having episodes of emotional trauma and a deal of emotional anxiety due to forced adoptions being exposed for them again, and for this I feel great empathy and compassion.
From suffering my self I have learnt compassion, it's one of the surest ways to gain this humanity.
Possibly everyone affected by forced adoptions is going through a 'living hell' as you call it at this time and we all want this healed as best as can be.
Finding it easy would be a bit too quick to judge as no one finds forced adoptions 'easy' to talk about.
Best wishes to those affected, healing may it happen for you all.
Marion

The things that were done to the mums in their adolescence when pregnant.
Mind boggling and like the theatre of the absurd gone into madness.
I think from what I've seen, heard and read and the people I've spoken to this all should be exposed more.
My friends and I are concerned about the people and places 4 Corners didn't show, like the Salvation Army's notorious Bethesda along with all the other hospitals and homes this corp. of church going people were meant to give care too and breached their duty of care.
I've met several who went to these places and their stories are little more than terror and torture.
For all who suffer today I think you all should have compassion for your selves to.
This is a way of healing I'm told.
You went through what Joe Soll says is worse than going through a war, and in many ways I have to agree.
What a vulnerable age and impressionable one to to go through forced adoptions.
The bull'y have to own up.
Bully's eventually get bullied do people realise this, I've seen it time and again.
They get bulllied out of their own respectable facades and into disrepute.
Forced adoption mums and babes were bullied by means most foul.

Good luck to all of you to healing and have some compassion for your selves for what you're living with and been through.
Stewart

The bully's are already exposed and whether they like it or not they are going to apy for their cruelty to the birth mums and their babies.
I can see this and so can the professionals I work with.

The talk about Salvos. there's no need to state the obvious they have taken from the plentiful as well as the poor all their time except the foundation was not like this.
I've met staff who work there at meetings and they seem without their marbles.
I pity the Salvation Army they've already lost their reputation and not only because of forced adoptions.
Lizzie and son

Whilst I was doing a major work on forced adoptions I met with staff at the Film and Television School.
They were about to have a film about forced adoptions from one person's personal experience.
I reckon if anyone is interested in furthering their research into forced adoptions if they went to the Dean or Chair of The Film and Television School and did so non-intrusively to seek out the archives of films on this subject they may be fortunate. It's worth a try and with perseverence may find some gems.
The thing is, the film made by the person I met was not for the public it was an assignment, however, I have an inkling they'd oblige serious researchers including the Australian Institute of Family Studies and anyone who is seriously wanting more than the superficial a look see at the archives they have on forced adoptions.
These Film and Television Schools are in every state in Australia, I think, and definitely there's one in NSW.
Worth a try if you're interested.
The more we understand forced adoptions the more understanding we bring into the world as a whole and help the people who have gone through very profound trauma as this, as well as enlighten the biased, ignorant and unaware, and not excluding add to the betterment of society in Australia. It's in a bit of shame at this saga at present. The shame oppressively put on the mums and infants was pure projection of others in positions of authority who lacked empathy. All bully's by the way lack empathy. That's one of the characteristics of Bully's, it's horrible how they can be found in almost every institution as toxic influences who damage and hurt, rather than be creative, caring and sharing.
Of course they, forced adoptions, should never have happened.
They did, and heaven forbid they ever do again.
Thanks Indy.

I was working and having a break at a local cafe when a woman came into my face and spat at me and with these words went on:
"I know you, you're the one who gave your baby away, you'e a murderer."
I was saturated with her sputem and in shock going back to work with the darkness overwhelming.
This is one example of how we were judged for losing a human life we loved, wanted and cherished with all our being yet were denied even basics to care for our babies.
When does the judgements of these kinds of people stop.
For me it has not been a one off, and I am not a criminal nor with any leanings that way.
I saw the woman was someone I'd only just met fleetingly and was really untogether, however, words like that are as painful as they get.
I lost that job not long after that episode.
We were all judged by so many covertly and overtly beyond any acceptable level of any humanity.
This woman was and is obviously very sick, but at the time and for a long while after it affected me and took me into a deep slide down.
Thanks

I'm appalled at the ignorance and how a lot of these women have been treated not only yesterday also today.
This has to stop and I can only see that happening when
the Report has some tangible and followed through action.
If it's simply a Report that's not enough.
We need these women to have apologies from all the instituions who damaged them severely including the governments.
It doesn;t matter when they were first damaged, what matters is the affects of this torture and horrifying treatments.
Then as the comment said a woman tells us she was in todays lifetime accuesd of being a murderer.
One sick person has to turn her own anger onto an innocent birth mum.
No doubt this has happened to a lot of them.
More than unjust.
Who were the "murderers?" and I'm not usually one to not judge, but my judgement goes to those who neglected their care of extremely vulnerable birth mums with babies.
This is not Australian.
I think apologies are now needed by a lot of departments and a lot of the Report should be carried through.

Best of regards to that poor woman who was verbally injured. Suffice it to say I think people who judge like this have very major issues and no counselling could help 'the judgers' it's terribly sad.
Janine

The best professor I know about was one who addressed his students and locums: "Fellow students".
He knew as most intelligent people do we are all learners those of us who have not closed out minds.

Dr. Hoolahan was a medical student at Crown Street Hospital where he saw and found horrific the practices imposed and rights denied of natural mothers with their babies.
He spoke out and his character is that of an ethical and honest, caring and real doctor, not in it for reasons beyond the regular doctor humane ones.

Stumbled on his words and his story about forced adoptions for this in
Sydney Morning Herald 28.02.2012
"Nations Shame: 'it was the most horrific thing I've ever seen' by Bevan Shields: about Dr. Hoolahan's basic decency and conscionable nature yet being dismissed by his 'superiors'. What shame and arrogance was that from his 'superiors'. They neglected their brightest voices.
The professor I write of to begin with, is right, we all in the workforce and as students and locums have a voice and views that need considerations. In this instance massive wrongs could have been avoided if that one voice were heard and acted upon justly, ethically, honestly and humanly at Crown Street Women's Hospital.
One Dr. Geoff Rickarby rightly exposed and wrote about as well as the Salvation Army's hospitals and the Catholic hospitals.

I just don't understand why no one listened to Dr. Hoollahan's views and took him seriously.
I admire this man for coming forward with the truth of all this. That is was as he said 'horrific' he an observer not one of the targets, with powerlessness to override what his 'superiors' were doing unconscionably.

This is very telling how entrenched the open terrible contempt was for these vulnerable adolescent most [young girls really] and their babies.

I'm glad a lot of people are finally listening hopefuly understanding the implications of all that happened and harmed horrifyingly these young ones.
Good on the Doctor Hoolahan's of the world, we need more of your calibre and on behalf of the forced adoption people I know [that's quite a few] I send you every best regards and highest respect.

tanya

Just found out Crown Street is listed on the Internet as one of the Women's Maternity Hopsitals many have opened up about but there's nothing listed on Salvation Army's Bethesda Maternity Hopsital in Marrickville NSW.
Isn't this weird.
Instead of any listings of their hospital's Salvation Army have listings of what the premises are today as in "Stead House".
This is an ommission on the part of the Salvation Army.
History is not to be secretly closed and I know many are at this time trying to find out more about Bethesda in .
The Council has information, but the corporation don;t think they have to record for the public any of their past 'activities' it appears.
Very fishy.
tanya

Whatever follows is not to be construed as gossip as it is factually truth and for me I too went down a spiral after divulging I had lost my son to forced adoptions.
(though I don't think I got a chance to mention it was coerced, out of my control entirely, to this man).
There were quite a few men pursuing me and this was not so long ago. I refused all 'dates' except this one who I speak of as follows seemed sincere.

I was being pursued and eventually being dated by a Macquarie Street Physhologist Specialist.
The man seemed witty, was with a lovely sensitivy (or so I thought) and was involved in a profession I admire from the learning I've gained from psychology (I was once a miscellaneous student for this my self at UNSW, except funds and lifestyle prevented my continuance).

On out first real date things were so sweet and he invited me to join him and another couple to his place for a dinner party. That evening was a delight for most part.
The next date he took me to a Thai restaurant he loved and was genial and it was also a good evening.
We laughed and talked of many things, it was I thought, like finding a new friend, I had others but didnt date them.

There was no physicality as I have to know the man before I go there, naturally, for me anyway, it takes a long time.

He took me to the theatre and we were meant to see Hamlet but instead saw another Sydney Theatres Company production,
jusy great with Noni Hazlehurst someone I'd once met personally at a mutual friends home, as one of the actors and the theatre performance was called "Breath of Life" irtonically.

Following that third, maybe fourth date and a few genial talks and cafe's I invited the man to my place to have a meal, thinking this was appropriate, again knowing I was not going to embark on lovemaking, just wanting to get to know him better and show him how I lived, my work which was everywhere in my small unit and return the meals and hospitality. He had been so generous with so much I thought.
That evening after an intimate dinner really I divulged wihtout a lot of thought how I had lost my son to adoption, only briefly, I didn't want him to know the story, probably wanting him to understand why I was a bit aloof with men generally, so he might understand.
His reaction startled me and I went into a kind of shock and horror.
This man said: "Don't you talk with him your son you adopted out, or see him at least once a week?'
I said honestly 'no' with my head down by this as it was a very odd question I felt so awkward and speechles (not wanting to tell him the reunion didn't go well with my son highly uptight and nervous and I with every emotion there is also going through my mind at that time.)

I had put trust in someone who was professional I hoped in work hours, yet personal with me as well as seeming to want to see me a lot at the time, and he did for that while, pursuing me and wanting to share my company.

After the evening when I divulged I had lost my son and told him no I didn't see him every week nor chat with him every week the dates stopped and the man withdrew.
I had made (I thought then) the redicuous mistake of telling this man something so sensitive and revealing about my past that even this man with all his degrees and supposed expertise in psychology was out of any liklihood of wanting to see me again as a friend or companion.

This wasn't the first time this had happened and yet this time it hurt and I wrote a lot about it all to cathart how it had affected me.One of these writings I sent to The New Yorker, as everyone I know loved it, saying it moved them, and said try the cremdelacrem first with this one.

The core of what i'm expressing here is even in the seats of what are supposedly aware and open professionals and possible reliable confidantes/friends, people with enough self awareness therefore other awareness I had been discouraged, my spirit dampened, and lost a friend because I was considered by him 'unworthy' any longer and my intuition told me it was because of the forced adoption.

I wont bore you with just how many people have walked away when they've found this out, as if I at first was some lovely creature and then after the knowing of my NOT secret my son lost, I was rejected and left feeling again in a different but no less painful way that isolation I had known when my son was born and taken from me.

The first purpose of this revelation is to show how there was, is and may still remain the kind of terrifying stigma (stigma definitely holds people back from a lot they could contribute more) that has taunted and damaged forced adoption people, and speaking for my self it has been far too often to discount as not being a form of discrimination yet again tearing into me.

The second purpose is if one doesn't date but actually sees a psychologist for counselling for causes and effects of that major loss and deep trauma of forced adoption they choose their counsellor very, very carefully.
Because a man has more degrees than a thermometer and be 'up' there with 'the best' does not mean he will be ameniable, respectfuk and sensitive to the highly acute sensitivities and complexities of going through such a very profound (as too many people have correctly said) trauma loss as this one. Choose carefully.

The third purpose is it seems there were and are very realistic valid reasons many women/natural mothers have not 'come out' with their stories, even as I came out long ago, and publicly.
The reaction from so many tilts your psyche and turns you down a spiral that you've known and yet that was when it was all actually happening. You find your self unable to live in the now in any way with these kinds of people, and that's tragic in itself.
I know living in the now is hard for people affected by forced adopttions but made further so by those who 'have no idea', lack all understanding and would leave you for dust when and if you tell them your saddest truth.

Trust isn't an easy ask for forced adoption people and I believe the Senate Inquiry into Forced Adoptions submissions would have been twenty fold if the core of what I've written here, discrimination, were not so.

We beed to build a better way of communicating so that truth as this does not alienate people and rather draws on their compassion and understanding, and healing for many if not all as a possibility, I want a probability.

To my unknown in person peers of forced adoptions I wish you no such dates as this one and no such discrimination no
sych further damahe than what has already been done to you.
I also wish you every healing possible, knowing full healing is impossible.

An artistic colleague, neighbour and friend was a victim (though she's not that sort of mentality) to forced adoptions. I am a single mother with two beautiful kids and two dogs, we are a family known to many.
My family and I know all about our close friends tragic forced adoption story and cherish our friendship with her it's vice versa. She's a good woman and has a lot going for her but never feels good enough, it's just not on.
She also has large struggles, is always underselling her talents (does endless arts for free or some charity she finds) and is a gorgeous person who deserves an apology and compensation for the sheer torture she's been through.
She is in our hearts as this all unfolds. It's been hard to watch what she's going through at present because of the Inquiry and all the media showing other seemingly older yet also danaged people's stories.
She's suffered enormously and we've supportively watched lots of this, and are very saddened man inflicted the utterly intolerable on such a sensitive strong caring friend woman mother, and family.

The only reports I usually read are compiled for artists, however this time I'm going to find this forced adoption one or get a copy from the government and read it all.
This is one era in Australian history the Arts world as I know it are looking at and we don't like our fellows being subjected to tortures, torments or anything else that is so inevitably destructive as forced adoptions.
It's all a national shame and everyone should be standing their ground and demading apologies and reparations that are sincere.
We're supporting further our friend and always will.
She;s not alone in this and we'll go to any court to defend her rights re. those that were taken from her at a very impressinable time in hre life when she was a child herself really.
Sincerely creatively
Kate and family

I see there's been a deafening silence since the Report came out.
I think this is a sad reflection on the news media and the governments.
I just read about Christine Milne being the new Greens Leader and as she is working with Rachel Siewert couldn't she have some "questioning" as a Senator to make this a priority, shouldn't they both. Or was it all those terrible stories told in angusih and exposure all in vain.
It's a big social issue.
Appears to me they go a certain way, delve into people's personal lives in ways almost very invasive, some Papers called a Report comes out then nothingness.
Where's the News Media about the Senate Inquiry into Forced Adoptions REPORT on the mainstream news media level and all the others?
You took the people's stories in good faith and now that good faith has to have some meaning to it.
We want to know what's happening with that Report.
Abi (gail)

They weren't even 'consenting adults' who were often forced or coerecd or intimidated into their sexually unknown landscape.
How the hell could they not be protected and cared for along with their babies, under these circumstances.
How could any institution be they government, church, corporation or social work professional have allowed the slip up of not giving a damn about their fellow citizens human rights to live without further traumatic coercions?
I find Forced Adoptions an abhorrent part of Australian recent history and wonder where the care was (and is) with Liberal governments in Australia.
They care for the top end of town only, whilst the other cares about cronyism. This is all too shameful.
When do we see a lot of destructive influences can end when we start to care more about the people who need care.
Ultimately all of us will or do at some time in our lives, then why not was that a known at the times when mothers who hardly knew what sexuality was were damaged and some for life.
What a waste of human capital.
What a waste to those who think only in terms of economic rationalism and what a waste to all those who think only in terms of cronyism.
Little wonder some of these mothers today are unable to tell their stories.
There's more horrifying ones that just have surfaced, yet.
I think Human Swrvices has to see the mothers in this baby scop era were not bad women and they have to see they were treated like that and for that they need to make amends.
It's never too late to serve conscionably where you didn't conscionably in the past.
Give the too many for my liking women/mothers an Australian 'Fair Go' and also educate their lost children as to the reasons they were taken 'without consent and importantly without ANY voice at all' not ever 'given up.'
Was the government then a dictatorship?
Is the government today this also?
We've read and heard lots of their voices and now need to hear ethical, conscionable, reasonable and human voices and actions from all the authorities involved.
Empathy is what discerns humans from carnivorous animals, even if in the animal kingdom the mothers and their babies show a lot of this as experiemnts have shown again and again.
For today leave adoptions for those babies and children who have no mothers or fathers and are stuck in instituions orphangaes overseas and in Australia.
(I'm well aware there are exceptions here as in the drug addicts who have baby after baby after baby and have all adopted out, that's a tragic reality Human Services might have to address as to how to supply birth control education to these very suffering scarred ones, who are still however, human and deserve services to help their tragic lives destroyed by self violence.)
None of the forced adoption targets were like this and none deserved to be treated as 'unable to raise their born babies'. With care they could have embarked on their almost adult lives in a far less damaging way.
Regarding the money machine that is adoption, something has to shift in the multi national psyches as nothing can be all about profits over people except in extremely mercenary countries and don't think other countries and all caring people don't notice and fling it all off as 'just how it is' that doesn't happen.
We're now international. Empathy is the new password.
Warren

My 1.06 bit was not saying drugs addicts are bad and others good. The former struggle and need help, where's the resources for them and they're needed it's a giant Australian and international problem.
I'm not really into good bad, but know there are the 'ugly minds' they make extraordinary moneys from drug sales.
Whats so wrong is making money out of these people's struggles and that's the same as making extraordinary lots of money out of coerced adoptions in all countries, and money was and very much is made out of them.
The stories in the news don't mention much about this kind of exploitation, terrible abuse of power and corporate profits over people greed.
After watching 4 corners and hearing a lot more I think forced adoptions is a very topical and newsworthy social injustice.
Warren

After reading The Australian Journal of Adoption on Senate Inquiry into Forced Adoptions Report Volume 5, no 1, I realised this.
They have said the Report was simply the outcome of the 400 or so sumitters, when truth is it's for all the many thousands of forced adoption targets, not simply those who at a certain time were with ability to submit, including
the pioneers who exposed forced adoptions long before this Commonwealth Inquiry.
They also state the "happier families" would not or may not have Submitted their stories.
This is hogwash. Utter 'mistake again'.
I'm very aware the people who didn't submit their stories are by far the most traumatised and damaged, not the 'happier families'. That was a 'mistake' or 'error' in the Report and the Journal of Adoption writeup.
I found it moving that all parties were without dissent in their deliberations forced adoptions were wrong. This shows a lot of common threads amongst all parties, humanness amongst the politicians involved.
The one who said the Happier families didn't submit is way off track. The happier families are non-existent.
Every birth mother suffers from the loss of their born infant if lost to coercion and without voice, support or any choices as do the infants themselves, lesser or greater degrees.
No less than the 400 or so submitters.
Also, the Report fails to take into account those who can't articulate at all. this is very sad.
What is too painful to remember they have definitely chosen to forget, or, they have no trust in governments due to how badly they've been treated to date by these, or further they can;t write very well and couldn't handle making a submission.
The national framework is an odd idea, as they did this with the Aboriginals in the Northern Territory under that same name 'National Framework'. Terminology hopefully simply just that, nothing more sinister.
If they go that way with adoptions and cause further damage to the targets who are far more than the mere 400 submitters, they have lost their credibility and a lot more. Though there is a lot of human truth in the Report also.
But not this 'The submitters were told "This is your Report" and I think "shame" about this as they should have said "This Report is for ALL the many people damaged by forced adoptions", including those who could not for the life of them give their stories to governments who had once betrayed them, more than once far too many times.
Overall, the Report has so much compassion though and for this I commend those politicians who have the awareness of the much larger and not happier number of forced adoptions sufferers.
There's no doubt the submitters made up the few witnesses the gov. heard, and no doubt the submissions were only 400 odd, and no doubt their stories [along with many others who had gone before them and all those who were not submitted] made up that Report. That was omitted. That's crude.
The others were in no way 'hapier and therby didn't submit' that's a 'mistake' to write such a thing.
Don't heel to anyone, including these people, Heal all of you not only the submitters and hopefully there will be justice for you all.
You have other avenues for justice today besides some (not all) puffed up governments.
Ultimately there's positive views in the Report especially from two Senators at the beginning of the special edition.
They just got it wrong by trying to make out it was only to do with the 400.
Even admitting those 400 gave way to the inquiry having at least 400 or so stories.
The applause they gave to the audience who could afford to go to Canberra on that day wll what can I say, it left out a whole lot of others who couldn't.
Giving flowers to two only people or was it more who lost to forced adoptions, I give them all bouquets, every single one who lost their babies to coerced adoptions.
I feel pity for those politicians who could'nt see some are so poor today they couldn't submit and are in no condition to do so, and for reasons totally outside their human control.
Thanks Indy
Mark

It's exactly as I read the quick view of Aus. Journal of Adoption about this Report on Forced Adoptions.
How many people could afford to write their submissions, how many people had the emotional capital to do so during the inquiry, how many could take time off to go to Canberra, how many could afford to go there, and how many should be commended for suffering so much torment and torture, enduring tragedies (stoicly in many cases) of their life's major loss, possibly many more just not to forced adoptions or any other forms of adoptions.
The Report does however make me admire Senator Rachel Siewert and those who said 'All should apologise" as this is just and not only the governments of both major tiers.
The pushy and the dead is how I see the gathering in Canberra, except for the politicins doing their job well.
Heaven help those who are not bully pushy people and who have not done to people what was done to them.
One of the groups who was handed a bunch of flowers was to a woman who completely rejects a fellow sufferer, and has been as rough and rude as can be to her.
She once told me as a friend how that woman spoke down to her and mocked her for daring to ask questions.
I know this woman's contempt because I have the e-mails she sent my friend, they're not friendly and they're scanned.
It's a complex social injustice by all means.
Let's face it though, Mark is right, who are the Happier families where they lost their own flesh and blood to strangers. I haven't as yet met one of these, and the Report is for ALL the targets not just those who could afford the time to attend Canberra or submit their time with writings to the Senate Inquiry into Forced Adoptions.
It leaves out too many who made this whole baby scoop era known to the public on other levels in Australia, and therefors on a larger scale in Australia.
Totally Bouquets go to all the mums who lost to forced adoptions not just a casual few, what kind of exclusion and cronyism is that.
Abi(gail)

Abi(Gail) the Australian government and this forced adoption Report don't want to commend or recommend any niceties to the original pioneers who first spoke out publicly about forced adoptions.
What government today is enocuraging free thinkers and original thnkers.
[Many intellectuals, humanitarians and similar free thinkers will always]
Reason being governments are about dominance and influence.
They applauded those 400 odd who were subservient to their own agenda and did as they said put in submissions or acted as witnesses.
The groups are also not going to acknowledge the spokepersons who first raised this social injustice, they're envious and too angry to do that, they need the herd to function.
Truth is the original, free thinkers who did speak out time ago are on commendable records other than this Report. They're (few they be) known whether the government would acknowledge them or not. They don't need governments 'applause' they get it from other sources.

The 'ceremony' in Canberra to me was like a whole bunch of people celebrating something very tragic, a bit odd, way over due because the original thinkers were not listened too and yet if it lifted those suffering all the better for them and those who could attend Canberra.
It was good in some ways as in truth finally accepted, yet also as you suggest, political, leaving out lots of people, including here the wealthy as well as the poor who would not submit because of their own human restrictions, one possibly to not hurt further themselves or their loved ones who they care about as much as the babies they lost, and now live that care and love that was denied them during their experience of tragic loss in forced adptions.

You're also correct Abi(gail) what mother who lost to coerced adoption was and is 'happy therefore didn't submit' with their lot then and thereafter, that was a folie and new mistake written in a supposed professional Report.

Positively speaking the Report does have some good recommendations and I'd like to see 'concrete (human and vital) actions' follow from the best of it. Leave out the 'mistakes' in it, really doesn't matter in the larger scheme of things.

Original free thinkers and pioneers are always celebrated in the long run. Their time comes.
Regards
Mick

Facts for clarity

Thomas Graham is an adoptee and founder of
The Australian Journal of Adoption.
He works closely with the government and is as his website tells all embarking on his own journey to resolve his own experience of being adopted.

He is not a birth mother of course, and is also not a birth father of a lost baby to adoption.

This is only one Journal of Adoption and I reiterate it is with government ties.

Best
Mick

Responding to Abi and I think Mark too here.
Don't forget the Report put out for the Senate Inquiry into forced adoptions makes several recommendations that are originated from two individuals.
Firstly there was Dr. Rickarby with his public desire for
*Counselling" forced adoption targets in later 90's NSW Inquiry inclduding giving forced adoptions exposure, suggesting apologies and much more. (Solo voice speaking out against injustices, but never really unsupported.)
There was also the innovative Pamela Bridgefoot who didn't recommend an exhibition she actually carried out an immense one in NSW in 1992, I quote, a "multi-genre exhibition" for forced adoptions that quote again "drew a huge audience*.
She too was, always will be supported by her creative peers for this, plus her thankless tireless contribution to helping change an unjust law, never with the *supports* of governments or corporations of the times long ago when they wronged her damaged her, as with Rickarby who was equally in fact intimidated (his own words) for raising truth about the tragedies of forced adoptions.
These two are examples of individuals who took it upon themselves to show truth when it was not raised publicly; all I can say is imitation is the highest form of flattery.
I doubt neither of these original *pioneers and innovators* have the kind of egos that need patting to know they did vast works, thankless tireless works without remunerations to *authentically raise awareness* with this social cause.
The Report drew some if not many of it's recommendations from original thinkers, just long after the fact.
Imitation is the highest form of flattery.
All the best for all the target with the oucome of the Report.
It's recommended to be publicly disclosed three months after the Report came out.
James

There's a lot of reason to give recognition to the individuals who contributed above and beyond the call of duty for forced adoptions in Australia.
I think though Geoff Rickarby did have his form of 'lobby group' where Pamela had no such thing, and was very courageous to step up and speak out when it was so secretive and quiet.
However, this forced adoption social injustice did need to be looked at collectively.
I take the point and seriously a lot of people were not included in that collective, very many in fact.

The Senate Inquiry into Forced Adoptions Report are meant to give their recommendations three months after 29th February 2012 when it was made public.
All of us concerned or with interest in this social injustice know there are many people left out of the Inquiry whose stories would have enlarged the bigger picture further.
I don't think they'll always remain silent.

This social injustice will move further than the Report whether the Report does it's honourable duties or not.
In hope they do their 'honourable politicial duties' to serve their fellow citizens who have and continue to suffer from this tragic saga in Australian family history.

Marion (Health Professional)

It's time to ask more questions about why the news media are not talking about the role of the Salvation Army in Forced Adoption. It was a very large and significant one.

We found "Salvos chief apologises for abuse in home" 08.12.2010 journalist David McLennan from the Canberra Times."
It outlines the first time this "church" corporation have only by pressure admitted wrong to children and adolescents in their "care".

"The world head of the salvation Army (Chief of staff perhaps Barry Swanson from London) has offered an official apology to the Forgotten Australians who were abused under it's care, amid calls for a National Reparation Fund."

Were all more than curious as to why the Human Rights hasn't as yet considered a Commission, a looking at creating an independent commission to handle the historic abuses and oncoming claims against the Salvation Army's Maternity Hospitals and Homes, The Other religious Maternity Hospitals, and the State Agencies that handle/d all these thousands of forced adoptions.

We need an 'abuse claims commission' and especially as that abuse has now been exposed not only for children also for their mothers and is lifelong in accordance with the findings from the Forced Adoptions Senate Inquiry.

Marion (Health Profession)

I read about forced adoptions and the Salvos role and that's no surprise at all.
The should be the first to apologise.
They ripped off the Commonwealth government mountains of dollars under the pretense they were helping the unemployed find work.
That combined with the Children's home abuse and there's more belive you me there's more makes me turn away every time I hear someone mention the sa;vos.
Their a disgrace to Australia and internationally.
If they keep secrets that evil there's no way those secrets are not going to be found out as they will be scrutinised judged by their own "God" finally.
What I find more appalling than stealing funds that were for the unemployed to help them get work is the Salvos making mothers give their own babies to people who weren't even related in forced adoptions.
What to do about corporations, and this isn't the only one doing criminal as well as unethical terrible things to decent people.
Sonia

The Salvation Army need to apologise
This is now too shameful
Gerry

I am an adoptee and I have had contact with several of the so called support groups for forced adoptions.
It seems to me they are to angry to help me, and I've now been told to not go to any of them again.
They more or less were condescending and like they were these martyrs who had huge rage (big black dogs) on their staff and they asked me for money to join almost every one of them.
I was told they were free support services and then got their anger and strange communication every single time.
It didn't matter what group it was they all spoke down to me.
These groups all need to have their individuals having counselling before they pretend to be support groups for people in the adoption families.
I may be an adoptee and young but I'm not alive to be spoken to the way some of these support women talked to me.
I now go to a good counsellor.
What's stopping these groups from having counselled support staff.
I want to see all the companies that abused my mum and that left me with birth certificates that are not real have counselling to, and also apologise, make reparations and compensate the people who have had their lives shattered and that's the ones who now live in poverty or below the poverty line. That's not on for mothers and their children to have lost and then been thrown into the pits like that.
I've heard all about how many of these there are, and they are good people not greedy or done any wrong.
The world isn't all just I learnt that pretty young no matter about that this all needs legal and just reparations from people who are sincere in human rights and wanting to support those who need support.

Gail (aka)

That's amazing I was in the same boat as Gail and it was like I was in these conversations with vicious tigers wanting to rip me apart.
The groups need help.
One of them wants to get revenge, I don't think this forced adoptions is about revenge at all it's about human justice.
Forced adoptions was wrong for all involved and that has now been made public news.
There needs to be more awareness about forced adoptions it's still not there as it should be.
Australia talks of being family friendly and if they are they will take up the recommendations of the Report and definitely give the groups some counselling each of the volunteers in them.
They have no rights to do to others what was done to them.
I wont go to any support group again with any asking for help unless they get professionals in there.

A father of adoption

I went along to the Benedolent Society's P.A.R.C.S. at Bondi Beach to find a report a client of mine needed.
It was the full transcript of Dr. G. Rickarby;s NSW Sweante Inquiry in NSW.
The first woman who greeted me with trepidation said "We don't have any reports by that doctor".
I insisted I was told by a few this was where there was a small library for just such transcripts, and a second woman told me "We've had budget cuts".
I stood there and the asked "could they look a bit harder it was important for someone doing work on forced adoptions, and still no meaningdul dialogue.
Eventually this group and just as I was leaving said "We've got one copy, you can have it".
I said "I'll borrow it from your library" and they said "No, you can keep it".
That's an odd time and I'm still wondering if they wanted to simply forget Dr. Rockarby or what that was all about.
The support groups need funding.
If the PM keeps on talking about taking from the most vulnerable including the poorest, those living on benefits she has not realised there will be negative consequences to this.
There will be further bidget cuts to places that need budget improvement like the one I just mentioned.
It's in bad form to take from the bottom end of town and for this she may have a price to pay in the next election.
She doesn;t realise how many people do care in Australia, and not just about looking after the richest miners and their lot.
James

I'm a birth mum and I know that term doesn't sit well with some who are involved with forced adoptions. I use it only to state that I gave birth to a baby lost to an unrelentlessly terrible forced adoption.
In defence of the support groups who are independent all I can say is if some have had bad experiences with them, I don't mean PARCS, then maybe the anger they experienced was not intentional. And PARCS should have funds to run properly in their defence.
It could be the independent support groups are surviving on peanuts and inadvertantly misplaced their anger on a few unsuspecting people needing real support.
I found one of them to be helpful up to a point, and on one occasion very helpful and I sent them money for their help as didn't want them to go unrewarded for their extending of selves. It wasn't much but all I could afford at the time and enough to cover their time and effort I hope.
If it seems like some people have a lot of rage when they are part of forced adoptions I say that rage is part of the anger at the grave injustice of forced adoptions and a professional said healthy anger at the injustices of forced adoptions is very right and human, it's just how each person manages that rage and redirects it appropriately.
I do think they shouldn't dump it on anyone going to them for advice or help of course.
Maybe they've been on overload 'cause this is not a small number of people we're talking about who suffered the insufferable in outrageous circumstances, it's numbers I could never conceive of until this Inquiry happened, and a lot more than the 400 submissions the government received I know too well.
We have to understand that anger at social injustice is healthy and real as so many professionals have now told me.
I don't dismiss reality these groups can also up their way of talking with their clients when these clients are needing the support these groups claim they offer also.

With all due respect P.A.R.C.S. run by the Benevolent Society who finally apologised for their role in forced adoptions should be funded by their highly aquisitive and very rich corporation.
In one part of Australia at the very least it's well established they own enormous assets.
They don't need government welfare, the poor do and this includes any poor who were made that way because of the repercussions of their horrendous forced adoptions experiences.
An apology from them doesn't touch the surface as far as many are concerned.
Corporate ethics need to be examined further.

Totally see what you're saying Anon from day or two ago, and PARCS are in disrepute because they're part of so wrongly called Benevolent Society think Scarborough House Scandals and all the rest the so called Benevolent Society has done.
They are more like corrupt greedy nasties than a feasible and human charity.
Never liked them for what they did to these forced adoptions mums and babies, and even before I knew about those.

As for the so called independent groups they have major issues and one of them is they or at least one thinks there should be no adoptions at all, never, ever, that's Origins Inc.
That's insane as there are always exceptions to the rule and this group saying otherwise is being extremist like terrorists are.
They need head checks.
As for the others all I know is they too need what somebody said a whole lot of counselling before they dish out their so called support to the public.

I fully see the people who need the compensation are the women and children who've lost employment time and again or otherwise been disadvantaged because of the causes and effects of forced adoptions, and as somebody else said that's the poor on benefits or pensions.
They need the most help and deserve compensation.

There's a particular law firnm on the web and they are called Porters Lawyers, and it's just that you have to find out what percentage they take and if it's worth it all as in if they take a big percentage, they certainly aren;t in it to be goodie goodies for humanity rest assured.

Albert
Western Australia

To tell everyone something as deeply painful as forced adoptions is something I couldn't do with a name on it.
There are human reasons for this and one is the government has not always been kind to me. quite the contrary.
When I lost my baby I was a walking mute unable to communicate to anyone, except for going to doctors to see what was wrong with me.
I first went to my local G.P. in the suburb where I went home too. He said after looking at me "You're very clean" and I had said I needed help, there was something wrong, I felt devastated. He didn't hear anything I said and I paid my fee and left.
Then I went to the hospital in Camperdown where there is a mother and baby statue out the front; King George?
They looked at me and I said my body can't work I need help and my womb is weeping. They didn't know what to make of me I'm sure, but they checked and sure enough whatever they did to me when I had my baby they didn't do it properly.
I knew they drugged me up. I didn't eat for many days and was hardly awake when awake.
But it was that physical thing I felt, and at that time I didn't know the physical is connected to the psychological.
The hospital with the Mother and baby statue out the front had to give me a mini operation and I'm unsure of the name of it, but they said I was with a discharge, what I called my womb weeping and they had to do this.
I kept on thinking my body is not working and my head can't think what to do, I need help, and why did I have to have some strange mini operation after my baby was taken away so terribly.
I also kept thinking how was my baby doing, I couldn't eat nor sleep, where was he. I was in a state of perpetual walking day and night without my whole self and my baby missing.
There would be other visits to doctors whereby I would also express "I need help" and each time the nirse or doctor would tell me "You're attractive, intelligent, and have all the world to look forward too, get on with it". I was dumped. I was as I was in the hospital without anyone hearing me, even if I could hardly talk.
My feelings were dumped, my thoughts were dumped. I was telling people I needed help and they weren't hearing me.
That same not hearing me was what I was used to at the hospital at Marrickville.
Everyone telling me what to do, and no one taking any notice if I opened my mouth. Yet I couldn't open my mouth at the hospital as I was in severe shock and horror.
It was beyond my understanding I was sixteen and in something I had no words to say.

How can someone tell a story that has so many horrifying memories that keep surfacing to government staff when those staff may not care just as they didn't when I asked them about my baby so many times.
How can anyone tell the whole story when if you do it's a nightmare and would horrify anyone, you know it horrified yourself, or it did me. I didn't want to burden others with all the nuances of the whole story it was one of abamdonment from everyone prior to the birth of my baby and afterwards and a lot more than that which was horrifying. After I came out of the hospital also all the while there were all these men coming toward me in my suburb as if I had written on my forhead "wanton girl" I was sixteen. I;d only been with one man and that was by his intimidation I was to disciver a long time after the fact.
I had to physically push very hard one neighbour away after him telling me "I know you like it we heard about your baby". (He had come up to me at my front door to accost me, as of course to him I was "wanton", and of course I wanted "sex". How wrong he was and so was the father of my baby.
The rumours, the stigma, the labels, the ongoing advances from men I didm't want to know about who thought I was a toy or object, yet again.
The Report says something about those who didn't submit must be somehow happier with their circumstances about forced adoptions and that's a flagrant lie.
It's also a distortion that shouldn't be in that Report as the Report is meant to be about truths not innuendo and assumptions. That;s a very big and wrong assumption in the report.
But there you go the government once again doesn't really want to let the whole gamut of voices be known, nor care about them, and especially the mute ones who aren't trusting staff who have betrayed one so often.
A lot of people are mentioning Empathy in things I've read about forced adoptions and that's what's needed with the two major parties who seem to think empathy has nothing to do with politics.
Politics is about people, politicians have to realise empathy is what makes people human.
If they are only about economic rationalism then we're hopelessly being lead by care-less, unempathic fellow citizens who are not able to see there is also the human factor and character counts even more than dollars.
It actually eventually makes dollars galore if Australia would value Empathy, and saves huge other costs.
Without character and that includes having empathy there's no future for anyone, let alone forced adoptions families.
Sick minds don't have empathy and they're found in gaols like the doctor in Norway who murdered so many of his patients, and who it was found out lacked empathy, as if that wasn't obvious.
What about the doctors with forced adoptions where was their empathy as well as their, as I found out, prifessionalism in gyno. practices. Why did I have to have operations after I lost my baby? What did they do wrong for this to happen, or was it that my body as well as my psyche was grieving my baby, I can't say, yet I know.
This is a large social injustice and one I see will raise more questions about Australia and how we treat mothers and their babies and children young and older, at time of forced adoptions and today.
Thanks Indy

It seems like you are having a really hard time now and did then when you were sixteen.
I feel compassion and empathy for you.

I'm sure you know from what you write your not talking about idolisation of biological forced adoption mums or any mothers as you've written about respect for your place as a young adolesent and then biological mother.
Resoect you never received for what was a long time, true.

How long did it take before someone did hear you.
You're not wrong to think the medical staff helped to make your trauma more unbearable as did other authorities.
It's been said by too many already in other words.

You weren't counselled at 16 like they said in the 4 Corners televisation Given or Taken? it shows.
I think that publicly showed news that made out most mothers were.
Kerry O'Brien began that program with a dicey introduction that wasn't direct, speaking of things nothing to do with forced adoptions. Then, as an add-on said the program was about forced adoptions.
Watched another rerun it's all there at the very beginning. That was a news media error even if the show said a lot. Constructive criticism isn't wrong Kerry.

I'm wondering how many had similar or other complications after they lost their infants the ways forced adoptions happened.

Let's hope the Report is seen for what it is and with it's errors also. Let's hope they all act on it as recommended.
What a beginning to a wrongly enforced adult life that was damaged so young and isolated you had.
My heart goes out to you. I hope you find peace of mind having all the supports you need so you can continue to express those recesses in your mind that have opened up and safely I hope now with empathic listeners.

I think a lot of unwed adolescent mums didn't have a way of telling what they were going through, were ignored when they tried.
You weren't alone in that respect of the tragedy of forced adoptions.

The News Media has done a good job of portraying sexuality for young and older as something to do with almost everything except what it is for and that's human couple affection.
They also make it into an aggressive kind of sport.
Healthy reality: Sexuality in adolescence or any age is about two mutually consenting people sharing physical affection for one another, it may be passionate for those who are passionate, but it's not about aggression.

This is written to explain how I see forced adoptions for many women who may not even know they were aggressively forced to submit to forced aggressive sexuality not any civil sharing of affection when they were basically kids.
For those who were prematurely or immaturely forced in this way it was the beginning of further accumulative trauma when the forced adoptions ocurred. Shameful and little wonder the women today are still suffering it's normal nor abnormal.

I've found even when a mother has been forced to submit to unwanted sex if that eventuates in her becoming pregnant the bond still forges ahead because it's how the maternal instict is, very strong, very protective.
Though in the case of forced adotions the mothers and their babies were'nt protected by anyone, even when they were in the most fragile and vulnerable positions. Shame on all who stood by and saw this and did nothing.
That's the tragedy and that's the violence against women not enough are talking about.

The main stream news media promotes violence and aggression, and it promotes sexuliaty that isn't affection.
There's something warped about all this that affects the population of Australia and their way of seeing special sharing (something very sacred and loving as something other than violent and aggressive, very much other than) though made to appear like aggression in everyone's face.
You canlt sexualize everything though the news media does a good job at doing this. Foolish and troublesome for many.

Regarding politicians as the Dalai Lama said "It's a dirty business" yet heaven help them if they go dirty with this cause and the new report from the Senate Inquiry into Forced Adoptions.

Regarding one person's comments Forced Adoptions was a dirty business and we now know how the doctors, social workers and nurses treated these adolescents, the girls and their babies were never dirty yet dirt was piled on them. Maybe this is why at least one woman had to have a lot of medical treatment after she left the maternity hospital and went home. The practices may have been rushed and too rough because the staff definitely had their ingrained negative prejudices against the unmarried, married in these wards and unmarried in others,
where's the humanity there.
Shameful.

It's way over time to see this is all rectified.
There's a lot of work to do.

James

A very Just cause Forced Adoptions.
Keep beating this drum.
Andrew P
Melbourne Australia

Everyone involved keep beating that drum for reforms with forced adoptions and reparations.
Australians don;t tolerate that kind of behaviour from political, church or charity, corporate or private "authorities".
Keep beating this drum.
It's being heard and widely.
R.Baker

If any birth mum who was a victim of forced adoptions finds their employer, any government agency, service provider or other person or organisatiiom discriminating against them for their psychological injuries from causes and effects of their adoption experience they are now able to go to the Anti Discrimination Board and seek justice.

One birth mum I know was given a letter to resign from her work or be fired a week after she disclosed she took a day off to attend counselling for major depression even with a doctors certificate stating it was essential, and that Drs. certificate given to the emplyer the day before her appointment for counselling. She was in a state of severe anxiety and depression due to the things she was finding raised with the Inquiry, and had been with severe flachbacks leading to reactive depresion and panic.
She has been there before whilst working and it never showed, yet this time she thought she had to tell the employer, as it was on the doctors certificate.

The Anti Discrimination Board does not look highly upon these kinds of empoyers, or anyone else who discriminates on such grounds and so blatantly duscriminatory.
The woman had a good track record at her work and as a casual she worked well beyond her normal working hours to show how she wanted to fulfill her duties and stay on as a reliable staff member. She had no other sick days off since she had began her work.

Another birth mum I found out about worked voluntarily of own volition and the moment the employer found out she was part of forced adoptions told her she had to go.
This is against the laws and totally vile.

The other remedy for a birth mum in any similar circumstances or with other service providers or even landlords is get a good lawyer and do it through that means, however the Anti Discrimination Board is there for you as a first stop.

No birth mum has to accept any further discrimination, whether it be they are now again single unmarriied, or single unmarried mothers, people with disabilities of any kind, or for race or religious reasons.

Ben
Blue Mountains (Springwood)

I want to go a step further regarding the comment made by Ben in Springwood.
I was communicating with my birth son who is a doctor in a specialised field.
When I told him I had accumulative p.t.s.d. as diagnosed by my specialist the communication turned a corner, and my birth son threw it in my face that I had a mental illness, and withdrew his communications via e-mail not long afterwards. To this day i still send him birthdya cards, gifts and photos of his heritage of which it is loving and rich. My birth son does not respond at all.
I'd like to say what my specialist said re. that remark about my "mental illness" which ultimately led to my birth son cutting all ties with me: "You have a psychological injury" not a "mental illness" and "Your birth son may need help but may not ever seek this."
I in no way want anything but the very best of everything for my birth son, and by writing this there is no diminishment in my love and human concern for him, however, yes, discrimination happens too often the moment you mention to certain people you have some form of "psychological injury" and this is unacceptable.
This one I could not take to the Anti Discrimination Board for reasons I don't need to explain. It was, however, yet another wound to my feelings and mind, and one I talk over with my friends, associates, as well as my specialists.

Education and informed material re. forced adoptions is essential regarding the causes and effects of forced adoptions; needed further than what has already been raised.
Vigilance and discernment as to who you tell what to is required, it appears also, to my sadness.
Birth mother NSW

I'm really wondering why everyone is applauding something like a "National Framework" for each individual in the very large collective that makes up forced adoptions.
Forced Adoptions are not to be nationalised just as universities are not, even if they are funded by the government.
The fact there was a Commonwealth Senate Inquiry on Forced adoptions does not mean the Commonwealth owns the individuals who make up the whole "framework" of forced adoptions.
In no way does it mean these people should be part of a "Nationalised" system. They have human rights today and can claim these individually or collectively with their obvious moral codes and individuality respected.

Politicians and bureaucrats are there to do their jobs and with this and the Report they did a fair enough job, a lot of the work was done by more than the 400 submitters and those in the Senate. We all know this. We don't know yet what they'll do with the Report however one thing is for sure.
The people who were affected (and by my calculations there were enormous numbers beyond the speck of 400 submissions and a few witnesses) are not be be treated like stats. (or objects again) and they are not, de jure, nationalised objects to play around with how politicians and bureaucrats would like.
Forced adoption people need to heal and that's up to the governments and corporations to fund them to do so, not to make this into a national framework which negates all mindful and all conscionable people.
Geoffrey

The Report on The Senate Inquiry into Forced Adoptions can only be accessed at one ACADEMIC LIBRAY, the National Library of Australia.
This is outrageous.
The whole of Australia have every right to be able to read this Report.
For someone to go to their local library and request a "read" of this that would take time, and further, it would cost the person at least $13.00.
This is unjust, outrageous and not on.
We want the Report on the Senate Inquiry into Forced Adoptions in as many public libraries as can be, not just an ACADEMIC library.
This is not an Academic social injustice it involves the whole of Australia and not as if we're all at universities.
Bronwyn
Social Worker
Burwood