With the Prime Minister's apology to those affected by the forced adoption policies through the 1950s until the 1970s, ABC Open has brought together a groundbreaking national project allowing the mothers and children to tell their story in their words and their pictures. Meet some of the people to whom Prime Minister Gillard has apologised.
The Prime Minister's apology to those affected by the policies of forced removal and adoption of babies during the 1950s up until the 1970s has been welcomed - both by the children who have grown up and found out they were adopted and by the women whose babies were taken from them.
It is estimated some 250,000 children were taken from their mothers in that period.
Over the past months ABC Open has been collecting stories from these people in a national project entitled 'Separated', containing images, first person accounts and interviews from the parents and children affected by these policies.
The images and stories uncover dark secrets of Australia's past, where unmarried women who became pregnant were pressured and forced to give up their new babies, and generations of Australians who have spent their lives recovering from revelations that their origins were not what they had grown up believing in.
Visit the ABC Open Separated project here
The mothers
Lina Eve is one of women who have shared their experiences of the treatment of young unmarried women who became pregnant during this era.
"I was 17 and found myself pregnant to my first boyfriend. I was reading a women's magazine and they said Crown Street hospital helped women who were pregnant and unmarried. I decided to travel from Melbourne to Sydney and go to Crown Street hospital seeking help.
"Each time I saw the social worker it seemed she had more reasons why it would be better for the baby if I signed adoption papers. At that point I was still very adamant that I wanted to keep my baby..." she says.
"When I arrived at Crown Street hospital about to have my baby I was shoved into a room and left on my own... when eventually they came in and I must have been fully dilated they were yelling at me to push... right at that last moment of pushing they held a pillow in front of my face the whole time my baby was coming out, so I couldn't see what I had given birth to; I thought there must have been something really wrong.
The children
Many of the participants in Separated have a similiar story of finding out much later in life they were adopted, including Murray Legro, who began life in Launceston but only found out much later there was much more to the story.
"From what I can gather I was born in February in 1950 in a Salvation Army home in Launceston; my mother was coerced and forced by her parents and the matron [to give Murray up for adoption]... I was adopted at 6 weeks by elderly people; in fact my father was legally too old to adopt me, he was 53... I was not informed I was adopted until I was 34, when I received a birth certificate from the Tasmanian government prior to posting to RAAF Butterworth, showing that I was born in Launceston... and my birth was registered in 1984. And I said 'wow'," he chuckles.
He says finding out he was adopted in his 30s was life-changing, and the ramifications continue.
"It changed the world completely; it was illogical, that you felt you'd lived a complete lie, your past was shot to pieces, it's only with a lot of rationalisation that you realise you've lived your life, you're still you - it's just the heritage you thought you had is kaput - gone. I don't blame my adoptive parents because I believe they were a product of their time where they thought they were doing the right thing."
Watching the apology in Canberra
Murray Legro has travelled to Canberra to witness first-hand the Prime Minister's apology, and says there's a lot of anticipation among the gathered people at Parliament House.
"I'm nervous but I am confident there will be a sincere apology followed up with concrete action," he says."
"I'm hoping that there's funding to train people to handle people with adoption issues, also funding to ensure that people that are severely affected will get that help they need with medical and psychological support on a needs basis."
He says everyone has different expectations and hopes for the apology and follow-up action.
"I'm really hoping everyone comes away with something, so we can draw a line in the sand with that chapter and move forward, with the acknowledgement that the governments and the institutions of the day were wrong."
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Comments
The apology as moved in both houses of parliament
The following words of apology were moved in the Senate and the House of Representatives:
Today, this Parliament, on behalf of the Australian people, takes responsibility and apologises for the policies and practices that forced the separation of mothers from their babies, which created a lifelong legacy of pain and suffering.
2. We acknowledge the profound effects of these policies and practices on fathers.
3. And we recognise the hurt these actions caused to brothers and sisters, grandparents, partners and extended family members.
Advertisement 4. We deplore the shameful practices that denied you, the mothers, your fundamental rights and responsibilities to love and care for your children. You were not legally or socially acknowledged as their mothers. And you were yourselves deprived of care and support.
5. To you, the mothers who were betrayed by a system that gave you no choice and subjected you to manipulation, mistreatment and malpractice, we apologise.
6. We say sorry to you, the mothers who were denied knowledge of your rights, which meant you could not provide informed consent. You were given false assurances. You were forced to endure the coercion and brutality of practices that were unethical, dishonest and in many cases illegal.
7. We know you have suffered enduring effects from these practices forced upon you by others. For the loss, the grief, the disempowerment, the stigmatisation and the guilt, we say sorry.
8. To each of you who were adopted or removed, who were led to believe your mother had rejected you and who were denied the opportunity to grow up with your family and community of origin and to connect with your culture, we say sorry.
9. We apologise to the sons and daughters who grew up not knowing how much you were wanted and loved.
10. We acknowledge that many of you still experience a constant struggle with identity, uncertainty and loss, and feel a persistent tension between loyalty to one family and yearning for another.
11. To you, the fathers, who were excluded from the lives of your children and deprived of the dignity of recognition on your children's birth records, we say sorry. We acknowledge your loss and grief.
12. We recognise that the consequences of forced adoption practices continue to resonate through many, many lives. To you, the siblings, grandparents, partners and other family members who have shared in the pain and suffering of your loved ones or who were unable to share their lives, we say sorry.
13. Many are still grieving. Some families will be lost to one another forever. To those of you who face the difficulties of reconnecting with family and establishing on-going relationships, we say sorry.
14. We offer this apology in the hope that it will assist your healing and in order to shine a light on a dark period of our nation's history.
15. To those who have fought for the truth to be heard, we hear you now. We acknowledge that many of you have suffered in silence for far too long.
16. We are saddened that many others are no longer here to share this moment. In particular, we remember those affected by these practices who took their own lives. Our profound sympathies go to their families.
17. To redress the shameful mistakes of the past, we are committed to ensuring that all those affected get the help they need, including access to specialist counselling services and support, the ability to find the truth in freely available records and assistance in reconnecting with lost family.
18. We resolve, as a nation, to do all in our power to make sure these practices are never repeated. In facing future challenges, we will remember the lessons of family separation. Our focus will be on protecting the fundamental rights of children and on the importance of the child's right to know and be cared for by his or her parents.
19. With profound sadness and remorse, we offer you all our unreserved apology.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/apology-to-victims-of-fo...
An example of the sort of things that need to be fixed
"My only child was born in England in 1968; I was 17 and given no support or options. My son Stephen was lost to adoption.
Reunited in 2006, he's now Australian. Those authorities will not recognise us as related therefore I cannot apply for a parent visa.
We are still being kept apart."
https://open.abc.net.au/projects/separated-01du6ze/contributions/rosamun...
This involves probably the worst government department, Immigration, which has wrongly detained people, including Australians, and oversees the horrific torture camps for boat people. It seems to be staffed by heartless morons and redneck racists, many installed by the one-time immigration minister under Howard, Ruddock.
Coverage elsewhere
Gillard delivers apology to victims of forced adoption - ABC Online
We apologise, PM tells victims of forced adoptions - The Australian
Australia says sorry for forced adoptions - The West AustralianGet more results from the past 24 hours
National apology for forced adoptions | Attorney-General's Department
www.ag.gov.au › Attorney-General's Department › About Us
CachedForced Adoptions..Australia...: Home - forcedadoptionaustralia.webs.com/CachedYou +1'd this publicly. Undo
Julia Gillard apologises to Australian mothers for forced adoptions ...
www.guardian.co.ukGet more results from the past 24 hours
History of forced adoptions in Australia: senate inquiry | Crikey
www.crikey.com.au/.../forced-adoption-stories-from-the-mothers-wh...Cached
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A selection of women explaining just what it was like for a young Australian girl or woman in the 1950s-mid 1970s facing pregnancy.
Forced Adoption - National Library of Australia - www.nla.gov.au/openpublish/index.php/aja/article/viewFile/.../2681
Gillard delivers apology to victims of forced adoption - ABC News ...
www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-21/...forced-adoption/4585972You +1'd this publicly. UndoGet more results from the past 24 hours
Long-awaited national apology for forced adoptions | Audio News ...
www.sbs.com.au/.../Long-awaited-national-apology-for-forced-adopt...You +1'd this publicly. UndoGet more results from the past 24 hours
Forced Adoption Australia.. | Facebook
www.facebook.com/.../Forced-Adoption-Australia/12194577450374...CachedYou +1'd this publicly. Undo
Sky News: PM apologises for forced adoption - Sky News Australia
www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=856465You +1'd this publicly. Undo
Forced adoptions: the cheat-sheet.
www.mamamia.com.au/news/forced-adoptions-cheat-sheet/You +1'd this publicly. UndoGet more results from the past 24 hours
Forced adoptions apology - News.com.au
resources.news.com.au/.../365475-aus-file-forced-adoptions-apology...You +1'd this publicly. UndoGet more results from the past 24 hours
BBC News - Australia PM Gillard sorry for 'shameful' forced adoptions
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Re-writing Australia's history of forced adoption
theconversation.edu.au/re-writing-australias-history-of-forced-adopti...CachedYou +1'd this publicly. Undo
Australia formally apologises for forced adoptions | Bangkok Post ...
www.bangkokpost.com/.../australia-formally-apologises-for-... - Thailand
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We need these comments for research we're working on
Indymedia, Thank you for leaving all the material that was on the other original Site re. Senate Inquiry into forced adoptions.
I and others need these comments for something we're working on.
It's all connected, and the apology should not tear the past away from the present, again.
Thanks for kindly doing this, so we can gather what we need for our research in this topic, and with what you print here and have prior re. forced adoptions.
To lose that link/bridge would be disdavantageous to quite a few we know.
Yours in respect
James
There's no intention to remove any of it
x
People are left unprotected and unsafe in a very wealthy nation
Governments like parents have a major role to play in the lives of those they serve or care for.
That role is Safety and Protection from illegal and unethical policies and practices.
Due to the Liberal Government, also the Labor Government lesser extent time ago, this ominous role was not fulfilled during forced adoptions and isn't being fulfilled with other social causes.
People are being left unprotected and unsafe in what is a very wealthy and resourceful , to this nations shame.
I thought the apology was well presented except for a few reservations.
It's a beginning, I hope a beginning for those who had to tolerate what is intolerable: Lack of Protection and Safety. That this happened at all due to governments and all the other perpetrators lack of protection and safety to our vulnerable is atrocious.
This is not the end of this social cause, just the beginning.
Trevor
Masses for military, zilch on welfare and caring of people
I think what Trevor wrote is accurate.
Governments spend masses on Military and zilch on welfare andf caring of people.
We have a hospital and care crises in Australia.
Forced adoptions reminds me how much we owe Gough Whitlam for having the foresight to see ahead of his time.
The Polocies that damned these birth mothers were the Governments, therefore the government should copmpensate and how all the mothers who lost their babies to forced adoptions.
This applies especially if the adoptions were private and money did change hands.
I don't think anybody who cares and has a conscience can abide what the government did and how they did it with these mothers and their babies.
It's horrifying and good to have some beginning as Trevor said.
Forbes
This apology leaves a lot to be desired
Where are all the other Comments.
Several things that struck me as quite stupid and very unsophisticated in the whole "Apology" were these:
"For decades, young mothers grew old haunted by loss".
There's a diminishing of the mothers here and with this one line.
The biological mothers I know are looking after, caring in part or full time for their "old" fathers, or mothers or both; whilst also being parents to any other children they bore. In a sandwich quite often.
The apology also states and here's the big one for an Australian Government
"And despite all the coercion, many mothers were haunted by guilt for having given away' their child.
Guilt because, in the words of Louise Greenup, they did not 'buck the system or fight'.
For heavens sake how could anyone sedated to the max and bullied to the max (think about David Hicks and any we know of who have been unjustly severely maltreated) 'buck the system and fight'.
With a lot of truths, in between the disparaging remarks about these mothers there is this knowing the Apology leaves a lot to be desired.
They are not and were not all victim mentalities nor were they "poor me" types, they are living today individually with their own unique histories which are not "old and weary" yet true enough very anguished by policies and practices of the government.
The Guilt, as I know this, has nothing to do with not being able to 'buck the system" it has everything to do with the brain washing that these mothers endured being told they were selfish, wrong, or guilty/sinful for having babies out of wedlock.
None of those I've met, and I've met so very many, ever felt guilt for 'not bucking the system or fighting".
One of them well known to me is a fighter for freedom, has been all her life, yet when she was in "care" that wasn't care at the Salvation Army Bethesda Hospital she was anything but "cared" for.
She was drugged to the hilt, forced to sign her name on a document she knew nothing about (duress) and asked to dress her baby for that one and only glimpse, with the matron telling her "This is the baby who is going to his parents". When she, the mother, was the real parent, one of them. This mother was alos given Stilboestral and forced to take these tiny pills to dry up her breast milk.
The hospital ommitted to tell this mother that drug was a carcinogenic and that it was for that purpose.
This mother had hope, upon hope of keeping her baby.
The line which reads: "This was a wound that would not heal". That's really the equivalent of saying all these women are the same, one generic pool of porr things who would never recover. They may not recover from that loss in that they'll never forget, however, there is large hope and for many of these women that they live on growing further and further to their fullest potentials as individuals.
The Apology in it's entirety is not here, and it's very socially exclusive. Not all the women knew about the likes of Johnny O'Keefe, Holdens, and went to the beach as a pasttime.
This apology leaves a lot to be desired.
Very good start to acknowledgment of these tragic wrongs
A really powerful and humble apology this one.
With a few drawbacks.
I think we have to acknowledge that a woman named Pamela Bridgefoot exposed all of the horror of forced adoptions in 1992 I think it was.
She spent a fortune in time and money to create an expose that as I know it helped change the lives of quite a few biological mothers and adoptees. I know it moved my wholw family with it's many facets of creative arts.
She spent herself, as she had a bit of a breakdown either prior to or after that lengthy and excruciatingly painful I imagine to make expose.
Four mothers said 'in their own words' at that time "You've helped me get rid of my guilt".
That's something.
Two adoptees were also outspoken about the bloodless lives they'd lived estranged from their adoptive parents, one of them, the other torn between two sets of parents.
The fact this expose reached the attention of SBS, several radio stations, The UN wrote to Pamela after she wrote to them, yet didn't get any attention from the government of the time is more than a bit disheartening.
We have to be open and listen to those who put themselves out there raw and exposed as Pamela did.
I was with my wife and family at this function and it really turned our minds around.
Our children were old enough to only gain some understanding though were moved to dance to the songs as sad as they were.
Prior to that occasion I had no idea these kinds of things were happening in my own backyard Australia. I knew they happened in other countries.
I really gained my best insights first from this amazing lady. Then again from the submissions of the Senate Inquiry. The Apology really humble and really good.
I wish we could hear the governments with this tone more often.
The apology as said it moved me. I felt what a good thing for a government to be with this kind of language, really good.
With a few bumps along the speech, as I know it wasn't written by the Prime Minister.
Really moving apology. Very good start to acknowledgment of these tragic wrongs.
Thankyou
William
It could begin a process to possibly change the lives of many
The apology was one way the government could begin a process that could possibly change the lives of many.
I know of an adoptee who at this time is struggling, not in the usual ways society sees struggle, emotionally.
We all have to stand up and speak out when we know of social injustices.
The silence during the times of forced adoptions, the secretiveness, this appals me.
It's all not a secret anymore.
Glad the government conceded to a national apology.
My father didn't see it, hear it or want to know about it
Firstly, this is NOT the Howard Government who gave the apology.
I don't doubt there wouldn't have been one were he in office.
You can't bring into this apology all the other issues that are wrong.
This is one particular social injustice of which the Federal Government have shown remorse.
Remorse when I'd think the majority of the policies were made by the Liberals, except for those forced adoptions in late 70's or in the 80's.
I thought the apology was really good.
One thing which saddens me yet is not really the whole worlds concern is that none of my original family (I am a biological mother) want to know about this apology.
My father openly said, I didn't see it, hear it or want to know about it.
There you have it.
There will always be people who cannot come to terms with their own part in what happens even if policies were in place to make these things happen.
I thank Julia Gillard for making this speech, and even as she didn't write it, she had the courage to make it happen.
That the apology extends to certain people who remain blind to causes and effects is their issue, not the governments.
Thank you Julia Gillard.
I wish you well with your career and all aspects of your life.
If we see that all people have good within them we see more clearly than if we see the worst in people.
I also want to say the Apology does not in any way put down the government that was in power over the majority of time of this forced adoptions.
Also, there is no way I or anyone can put down those who adopt infants and raise them with love and care when circumstances are such that the mother cannot do this.
In the case of forced adoptions the mothers, and fathers who admitted paternity, could have done this had their first families cared enough to hear the unsaid voices, had the government of the day cared enough, had the churchs and medical professionals thought and shown enough empathy and compassion and carried out their roles in a professional, ethical and humane manner.
The last thing we want is another Howard kind government.
Good on you Pamela, I hope you are keeping yourself well
I just love it how the groups involved in the last run of forced adoptions stand up as if they were the initiators.
I've got a tape recording of Pamela Bridgefoot from one Radio statio program taken some time prior to her multi media exhibition she had and it says she was the first to get out there and expose this. She was, this is truth.
Who went to air at that time about this, just one gutsy woman.
It's takes a lot of guts & more than your average courage to do this.
It wasn't fashionable at the time.
It was against the grain of what was happening in the news.
There was no money to be made that could be why none of the groups stood up and spoke up as Pamela did.
I'm no longer in touch with this remarkable women, but think credit should go where credit is due, and good on you Pamela for raising societal consciousness when you did. I hope you are keeping yourself well and I respect you for what you did.
This started something that ended in what many are saying is our Prime Minister's greatest speeches.
Adoptee
Good speech, but we need more than words for this one
I thought the apology was a good speech.
Know Julia Gillard didn't write it.
I think all the individuals and groups who made their mark with this social cause deserve a round of applause.
This is an important issue.
I'm confused about politics aside from this apology as I know John Howard is Tony Abbot's adviser.
I think poor old Julia the thing she did with Rudd has finally caught up with her, but her speech for these horrific forced adoptions makes me think she's worth a second chance, or maybe Rudd back in.
With forced adoptions I want to see all the mums and their babies in the land of wellness, as they have suffered long enough the stigma's, the taunts and the sadnesses.
What an ignorant lot the people who went along with the policies of those times.
They weren't so long ago. Some were in the 1980's.
We need more than words for this one I reckon.
Scott
I hope counseling helps brother's real mother if she's up to it
I'm 23 and have an older first child adopted brother.
My brother doesn't want to find his real parents.
I find Forced adoptions really depressing and want to see the mums and the adoptees feeling better.
I think an apology to be accepted, because this is so big a thing, well it takes a lot of time.
My older brother is really bright has all going for him except for some emotional issues.
I think the Inquiry and news made him think about this too much.
I just want to say even though this may be a depressing subject it's good the government gave an apology.
I know they're not saints, but this time they did something decent because as my brother says it acknowledges all the terrible things that happened. The counseling for my brother, I don't know if he'd go. I hope it helps his real mother if she can handle it.
Thanks
Those who cannot pay go without their right to know
Supporting the parents right to know about his or her babies growth is something that wasn't in the apology.
By the State governments not allowing parents to know how their children were going many mothers and fathers too expeienced protracted betrayal, grief and torment.
Every parent has the right to know how his or her child is going.
For those who suffer with forced adoptions that right was not even lawful.
This seems to have gone unnoticed.
The law did change during the early 1990's I think and there was allowance for identifying information for a price.
Everything to do with forced adoptions has a price tag on it. Often not fully obvious except upon further investigation.
This means those who could not or cannot pay have to go without what is their "right to know'.
Sad, very sad.
Unconditional love of biological parents, healing happens
The one thing that stands out and is to be commended in the apology is this - there was a compassionate apology.
Compassion, that ingredient which sustains society, it was all there.
I want to see more of that compassion as I take on the task of promoting empathy and compassion, whilst I know many others are doing likewise.
The core of a society is not it's wealth, it is it's compassion. This is the human component which allows countries to "grow up" and reform where reform is needed.
A very good apology.
I know there are mothers out there suffering who need counselling, and a lot. I know there are rejecting sons and daughters who still persist in feeling so abandoned they cannot find it within themselves to have compassion for their biological parents.
The latter also need counselling and I hope they too recieve it.
They may strive for wealth and power yet never understand their biological parents unconconditional love of them.
That would be a sad scenatrio, yet I know it's played out with quite a few of the sons and daughters.
Compassion and empathy - promoting these will change our world for the better and acting with compassion even for those who sadly choose great wealth and power over their history and heritage.
We have to feel compassion for these even as they are so unaware of themselves let alone others they choose such drivers.
Healing happens and I have hope for the mothers, fathers and sons and daughters.
Deafening silence from people like the Salvation Army
I commend all the individuals and groups who put so much time and effort into what eventuated, an apology for forced adoptions.
I still think a lot has been unsaid.
A lot of institutions are holding back.
They think they are above the law, they did when forced adoptions happened and continue to.
I'm talking about the corpporations including medical ones whereby the mothers were given a carcinogenic to delactate called DES.
I'm also aware there's a deafening silence from people like the Salvation Army, who played a very large part in forced adoptions and made money out of others suffering.
Shame on them.
They act with impunity and don;t give a damn.
Shame on them all who can;t find it within themselves that core of all human sopciety's compassion and empathy.
Best of good fortune to the targets of forced adoptions.
I wish you all healing.
Allan
Salvation Army and Benevolent Society should pay for atrocity
The Salvation Army and the benevolent Society should be giving the victims payouts for this atrocity.
James
The corporations have to apologise and compensate
Can't help agreeing with James.
At the moment the Benevolent Society is being promoted as giving 200 years service.
The trouble is the service they gave to the mothers when they sought identifying information was contemptuous.
i.e. the biological mothers were again abused by people supposed in places of "authority".
Bensoc can't claim to be "charitable" unless they behave in charitable ways.
I see Bensoc as a Multi national corporation who are setting the Agenda for some of the government's policies. Likewise the Salvation Army, both of these very financially wealthy and greedy.
Penny pinching with the real poor, and with staff that need training in empathy and compassion.
They have ammassed land and property worth a small fortune, that's Bensoc and Sally's.
As one comment stated it amount to enough to home Australia's homeless.
Yet in their corporate greed they give the top heads C.E.O.'s huge wages and take more than give in any charitable way.
The Salvation Army likewise.
I'm ashamed I ever had anything to do with these types.
*****The thing in Australia is the service providers are more interested in what THEY can get than what they can GIVE. It wasn't always like this and has to change to being empathic again.******
We have to change direction. The Corporations have to pay their share of taxes no matter whether they are churchs or other.
This is a massive problem in Australia.
Our two governments are right of center to boot. The top corporations set the agenda for all that federal and state governments do. That's truth essentially.
Forced adoptions needs compensations from the likes of Bensoc, the Salvos, and governments. The individuals who've been victims of theirs are now their respnosibility to make reparations to. That's ethical and professionalism.
It isn't about accepting an apology it's about who now needs to make apologies and restore these broken lives.
Too many of the mothers and their children have suffered trauma after trauma and this is not acceptable.
The first traumas were in part from governments, the Salvos, Bensoc and the rest.
The corporatios have to apologise as did the government.
They have to compensate each victim of forced adoption with that apology to make it sincere.
Neville
Financial reparations lead to further tangible resolutions.
How did they ever get away with this massive cover-up?
As the corporations are renowned for their greed and taking, they should give to these victims.
I'm finding what I read about the Salvos and Bensoc despicable.
They should be ashamed of themselves.
What Australia needs is to tax these corporations to the hilt and let them know what it feels like to have things, including babies, taken from them.
They wouldn't like it one bit.
They are takers, and use up everyone with the C.E.O.'s taking home what amounts to fortunes unearned.
The greedy now have to admit asking a mother for her baby is over the top.
How did they ever get away with this massive cover-up and all the secrets involved?
Things have to change.
My closest friend lost her baby to forced adoptions.
I have a lot of insight into this.
It's not over just because an apology has been given by the Government of the day.
TT
There should be a royal commission into forced adoptions
Secrets, Lies and Adoptions.
They are still going on.
The churches, governments and the corporations all have to walk the talk.
I've seen so much evil done by the do-gooders wearing the mask of christianity while doing the vilest things.
They are in positions that usually require scrutiny and accountability of highest order.
This hasn't happened yet. The C.E.O.'s and leaders are not being accountable or scrutimised.
There are always further questions to be asked when government, finance and power are too closely aligned.
There should be a Royal Commission into Forced Adoptions.
The only civilised thing to do with this messy situation is to right it with more than another "Sorry".
I haven't forgotten one woman who died far too young because she was a victim of this.
There wasn't a more decent woman.
Ted
These mothers need compensations from church corporations
Too many committed suicide.
This is one of the most tragic effects of forced adoptions. There are others.
These mothers now need compensations from the corporations who appear to be the churchs.
They are not above the law.
They broke a lot of laws.
Justice for the mothers and their children.
An apology is just that alone.
Alice
The feminist agenda seems to have gone silent
Whats being done for these mothers?
What effective measures have been taken to apologise with meaning to them?
This is the last straw when other people want somebody's baby.
I'm appalled.
If it's with consent that's different.
This is all about forced adoptions.
How to fathom how these desperats got away with such discrimination and anti-women tragedies.
We have to have the women speaking up again.
The feminist agenda seems to have gone silent.
Geraldine
Governments still treat mothers with total disregard
That sucks that these call them girls really some were women got this stigma at such a vulnerable time.
When I was pregnant I had a near accident where I could have lost my son.
I know I don't have the experience these women have but I sure as anything would want compensation and a whole lot more than an apology.
These lawyers doctors and churchs.
The governments of the day.
What makes Australia ethical is mothers standing up and telling the world.
We may be vulnerable but you don't kick a person when their down.
The apology doesn't amount to much does it.
I don't reckon anyone is impressed because the governments all of them still treat mothers with what I call total disrespect and disregard.
Australia does have to grow up.
When do mothers get credit for what it's like to comceive and bring a baby into the world and all the rest.
It's a hard road to mother. Your body does change and there is damage from giving birth.
It's made harder when somebody thinks they have rights to somebody elses child.
What gives with this.
The problem wont go away until women as well as men respect motherhood.
Julz
Compensate - the apology admits government wrong
Give the mothers compensations for these most profound tragic losses.
I'm startled at the sheer number of these pregnant girls and women who were betrayed and maltreated.
Nothing less than compensations as the apology in itself admits government wrong doing.
Even if there were no apology these mothers and their babies should have good care and support today and in the future.
Brett
No doubt that media played a role in forced adoptions
I don't think the times of forced adoptions found many people socially conscious.
They didn't realise that separating partners or marriages and infants was something you don't do.
Interfering with nature.
We have to ask some very big questions about even surro9gacy as this interferes with nature in my mind.
I'm saddened this affected such a diverse people.
I would like to see healing and the governments promoting empathy, compassion, trust.
We do need good government.
We haven't reached that place yet.
If the governments would start showing actions that allow these people and all Australians they are Trustworthy.
i.e. If they would be honest.
We would come to a socially conscious country.
At this time the very wealthy are not putting back into society and the poor or diosadvantaged.
They are the campaign funds for the government. That's the big oil and coal companies.
A government that lacks compassion and social responsibility, as well as ecological responsibility is not a government we need. We need to all be individually vigilant against the propaganda machine that is the news media and all advertising.
No doubt that media played a role in forced adoptions even as the Internet was not that updated then, as in it's early infancy.
For the mums, dads and their babies.
I can't help thinking there's just no excuse for the ignorance and lack of social responsibility that was rampant in the times of forced adoptions.
We can't go backwards.
All of us need to know who we are and contribute to just causes when we can.
Vince
Re: Apology for forced adoption policies: the mothers and ...
You forgive the perpetrators of this kind og grave injustices not because they deserve forgiveness because all of you deserve a life and peace.
Forced Adoptions in Australia.
The Prime Minister Julia Gillard did well to apologise.
However, we all know what apologies mean for Australian governments.
What about the Stolen Generation, are they any better for a "Sorry".
A drunken wife beater's Sorry or what?
The government did wrong by somebody I care about. I'm not able to make further comment as this is too dickensian for me.
Daniel