Jennifer Kaeshagen - courtesy of The Stringer - http://thestringer.com.au/the-prime-ministers-apology-to-victims-of-forc...
On Thursday, 21 March, Prime Minister Julia Gillard delivered a national apology on behalf of the Australian Government to all Australians affected by removal policies and practices from 1932 to 1982 which resulted in forced adoptions. The exact figure of how many children were removed remains unknown but it is estimated that as many as 225,000 babies were removed throughout this time. Many adoptees may still not know this to have been the case.
The forced removals and adoptions were driven largely by religious groups, churches and ultimately conservative social morays during the 1900s post-war period, when it was widely considered in the best interests of children to be raised by well to do, white, married couples.
In a 1973 journal article Dr. Ferry Grunseit, from the Childrenâs Department at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, wrote:
âIn New South Wales most unmarried mothers⌠are more likely to be poor, undernourished and of low intelligence, if not actually retarded.â
In 1959 Dr Donald Lawson of the Royal Womenâs Hospital remarked during an address that:
âThe prospect of the unmarried girl or of her family adequately caring for a child and giving it a normal environment and upbringing is so small that I believe for practical purposes it can be ignored. I believe that in all such cases the obstetrician should urge that the child be adoptedâŚThe last thing that the obstetrician might concern himself with is the law in regard to adoption.â
The removal policies and practices born from attitudes such as these, according to Prime Minister Julia Gillard âcreated a lifelong legacy of pain and suffering.â
âTo you, the Mothers who were betrayed by a system that gave you no choice and subjected you to manipulation, mistreatment and malpractice, we apologise,â said Prime Minister Gillard. âWe say sorry to you, the Mothers who were denied knowledge of your rights, which meant you could not provide informed consent.â
âYou were given false assurances. You were forced to endure the coercion and brutality of practices that were unethical, dishonest and in many cases illegal.â
The decision to provide an Apology from the Government came after a Senate inquiry into Forced Adoptions which found as many as 225,000 babies were removed. Many anguished Mothers, Fathers and their now grown children gave evidence to the Senate inquiry which focused on the removal of infants between 1951 and 1975.
It was a period in Australiaâs history of social stigma for unmarried mothers. Young women who fell pregnant were often sent away to halfway houses run by churches. Many were intimidated into signing away their babies for adoption even before they were born. Others who hadnât signed had their babies taken regardless.
The Senate inquiry found women were forced to sign and also that in many cases signatures were faked. Mothers who fought back were sometimes institutionalised and others held down while authorities took their newborns away. Some were drugged immediately following the birth of their child only to wake and find their baby gone.
In many cases adopted babies had their birth certificates issued in their adoptive parentsâ names.
Many women were reunited with their children but after decades of anguish, the journey to find their children a brutal one.
On February 29, 2012, the Senate Community Affairs References Committee released its report into the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices. The report includes twenty recommendations, several of which related to a national apology that identifies and acknowledges the experiences of those affected by forced adoption practices.
According to this report many adopted people suffered ongoing negative effects due to their adoption, including struggles with identity, self-esteem and intimacy mental and physical health.
One recommendation prescribed that âofficial apologies should include statements that take responsibility for the past policy choices made by institutionsâ leaders and staff, and not be qualified by reference to values or professional practice during the period in question.â
Indeed, today there is no doubt that forced adoption was a Government-endorsed violence which inflicted profound suffering on a great many Australians, hundreds of whom submitted their testimonies to the inquiry.
âAs a direct result of adoption I have found difficulties with trust of others, self-esteem, confidence, relationships and being a mother myself. I have sought counselling or therapy at six times though my adult life, roughly once in each decade. However there is no counselling available specifically for adoptees, to assist them with the issues of adoption which involves more than loss.â
âI still to this day struggle with expressing and understanding what adoption means for me. A few years ago I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and I have recently, since doing my submission, had panic attacks and believe that I now have general anxiety disorder.â
âTo strip a mother of her baby is a cruel, cruel act. But to leave a baby alone is another. And thatâs how I am, alone. Feeling as if I do not have the capacity to love, because it took me a long time to learn it.â
âMy life has been a rollercoaster ride of emotional trauma; indescribable fear; uncertainty; anxiety; self-sabotage in so many ways; physical ill-health; alcoholism; depression; anger at a level of rage at many points in certain phases; inability to deal with many aspects of disappointment; a feeling of abandonment within friendships and work relationships (far too often); and a variety of other emotional challenges which never made sense at a conscious level.â
âI believe that being an adoptee has profoundly affected my life in negative ways. I believe that all choices I have made in my life have been directly influenced by my primal wound that I have carried for my life and have only just begun to recognise.â
For many adoptees, developing a sense of personal identity has been extremely difficult. And many have experienced great difficulty connecting emotionally with others due to profound fear of abandonment.
âAs for me, being separated from my parents and being brought up by strangers left me with identity confusion, a sense of not fitting, of being a fraud, an inability to maintain relationships and a belief that I was unlovable.â
âGiven away at birth, I was stripped of my innate identity, my intrinsic heritage and formally given a new name and family. I grew up with a profound sense of dualityâof being part of a family and yet very much separate from them.â
âBeing removed from my motherâs body after birth traumatized me. Having my identity removedâmy entire story about who I wasâshattered my sense of self. Having a partial and meagre false identity attributed to me kept me in a state of traumatic confusion throughout my childhood to the current day.â
One submitter to the senate inquiry described the difficult experience of learning of her adoption as an adult.
âI found out I was adopted when I was 46yrs old. The pain of rejection was strong and so was the pain of finding my mother only to be rejected again. This rejection was caused by the great stress and trauma she had suffered in losing me as an infant. No longer was I the baby she remembered but a fully grown woman whom to her was a complete stranger. All of the memories she had hidden in her subconscious were brought to her mind and she was in great distress. I almost lost her because of this but somehow through great determination we have managed to have a relationship. I cannot stress enough how it is to lose oneâs identity at such a late age and then find family most of whom rejected me. If I had not been taken from my family I would have known my grandparents ,my aunts and my uncles and my cousins.â
Many adoptees report having experienced difficulties in their adult lives which they relate to the trauma of their adoption.
âI believe these circumstances have affected me in my life. I have been an anxious person during my life and continue to be troubled by what happens around me personally. My Story will never have closure for me if I cannot meet my birth mother or have a picture or something more than I have now. Who do I look like? What were the influences in my motherâs life? What was she passionate about? What sort of person is she? What sort of family did/does she come from?â
There is no doubt that the experience of being adopted has long-term effects.
There is no doubt that the experience of being the parent of a newborn taken by force has long-term effects.
âI always felt different from everybody else. I thought I was the only one this had ever happened to. I could be in a roomful of people and be so alone and upset. I would leave the room, go to another room where I was in private and bawl my eyes out, and then I would walk back into the room as if nothing happened, because it was my private pain that I was not allowed to speak about. I was silenced, told to go home and forget it ever happened. By jingo, you cannot do that.â
Indeed, according to Ms Charlotte Smith, âA mother whose child has been stolen does not only remember in her mind, she remembers with every fibre of her being.â
Today the following words of the 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.
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 childrenâs 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 nationâs 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 childâs 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 on this at http://thestringer.com.au/the-prime-ministers-apology-to-victims-of-forc...
Hansard transcript of what was said in parliament: http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/chamber/hansardr/7d2bdc3b-3..., scroll down to page 39.
Transcript of the Prime Minister's speech to 800 people in the Greal Hall of Parliament, as posted on her website: http://www.pm.gov.au/press-office/national-apology-forced-adoptions
Click on the three IMG's below for angry comment on the Labor leadership fiasco stealing the media attention from the apology.
Comments
Some of the most remarkable women I know have no children
Dame Helen Mirren that amazing actress aged 67 years has no children.
She is not bitter about this.
Even though this is a post about Forced Adoptions I think it talks also about society's expectations times ago and today about women getting married and having a baby or babies.
Many women are choosing not to have babies, whilst others are choosing to adopt.
I hope the apology is not meant to insinuate the society pressure of women keeping babies always, and woman who adopt being wrong, because both are wrong.
We are all so diverse and all as adults can make informed, when allowed, as in not under extreme pressure, to choose.
Some of the most rearkable women I know have no children yet are very maternal to others children and are so rich in other than money ways because of their very own choices.
I see forced adoptions mothers had no choices and few if any had any voices at those times.
They also lacked all care from those they needed the most care from.
Care is not a word that only applies to the elderly, a few seem to think it does.
In Health it is all about care, at any age we may need health services.
Really a good start to reparations
Join the two Apology's here together, it's confusing.
I think the apology as is written herein is really a good start to reparations.
Resolutions are needed.
Sam
I'd like to hear more about who is working with the mothers
As a citizen of Australia I expect good treatment from professionals.
It appears all the so called professionals and Governments of the times of forced adoptions weren't up to giving "good treatment".
I expect good treatment and ditch people who don't give it to me.
I'm a constructive person and surround myself with likewise.
The apology has in it a line about the rights of children, right at the end.
I here and now say there are also rights of the mothers and fathers.
Regarding some politician who'll receive a hefty salary when she retires. (Many will) It's that money earned is never any indicator of a persons value to society.
With the apology that last line bothered me a bit.
It's a bit too close to "in the best interests of the child" which we now know has been an abused practice.
I'd like to hear more about who is doing the work with the mothers or any who go to counseling.
If the government puts this kind of "treatment" in the wrong hands it can do more harm than healing.
I trust they'll do the right things by these individuals with this.
All the best to each and everybody affected here.
Geoffrey
As an adopted person I can't "accept" this apology
The States and Territories should be compensating the victims of Forced Adoptions.
For what I know they were the real culprits who enacted these vicious practices.
Their policies today about a lot of social issues leave a lot to be desired.
Do I as an adopted person "accept" this apology.
I can't.
I've seen what it did to my original mother.
No thanks it isn't enough to just say your sorry you have to walk the talk.
This does include the Commonwealth as it's been shown they were in on this forced adoptions.
Australia has a lot of secrets in the way they treat mothers especially, and also the fathers and babies.
Start showing some basic respect to motherhood. It's a tough and large place to fill that role I can see.
Thanks Indymedia
All a lot of empty headed Australians think about is profits
Corporations are not known for their "gentleness" and this includes medical ones.
The thing about the apology is it's from the Government.
That's cool.
However, there needs to be apologies and lots from the polcy aganda makers, that is the corporations who tell the governments what to do.
We have these multirich corporations making fortunes out of adoptions, then and as I write this.
This has to be apologised for, more to the point, that value system has to be examined.
It's easy for the government to ask the people who went through forced adoptions for forgiveness, I don't think it's easy to get it back from these far too many individuals.
The corporations need to show virtue, for starters thay could show it with this social cause. I'm not suggesting governments shouldn't start being virtuous also, they should.
Not everything has a price, yet all a lot of empty headed Australians think about is profits over wellbeing and compassion of their fellow man.
Conrad
Surrogacy is on the rise in Australia
A Billioniaire wants to be Prime Minister and damned be what the people of Australia think. He thinks (if he thinks at all) the people of Australia are that shallow and insensitive.
Surrogacy is on the rise in Australia and those with wealth and power think they can have anyone's child, no matter what damage it does to that child's mother, father and the rest.
We have to start looking at our values and what we want in the future.
Wealth nothing wrong with wealth, I'm just not into poverty, and putting others aside with leseer rights whilst some claim more than their share of these.
This apology was a long time coming.
I commend all the individuals who took a stand for the truth of these travesties of justice.
Forced adoptions are not simply about loss, they are about human suffering.
We are not here to cause human suffering rather to alleviate it where and when we can.
All the best to the mums and their children.
All the best to the dads who were there for the mothers.
No way will Australians accept a billionaire as Prime Minister.
There are some things you can't buy.
Babies are one of these.
Another is a position in parliament.
Allan
Beg to differ
Beg to differ. It costs a packet in personal funding to run even for a council seat, a lot more for a state or federal one, so you are in effect "buying" them.
As if that generation had no empathy and still doesn't
There's a lot of people in denial about forced adoptions.
These include parents who never considered their daughter's well being or even cared about them enough to look after them.
This includes those people who forced something so unnatural to happen.
I loved the apology and especially all of it not just the 10 points here.
We need to have compassion and that's the reality.
Without it we don't have any future.
Who wants to live deadened to the way these young mums were treated.
There are a few and they need therapy.
The denial I'm noticing mostly from those relatives who have outcast their sibling because of the terrible loss of forced adoptions.
I'm noticing it also from the parents of these mothers.
It's as if that generation didn't have any empathy at all and still doesn't.
I don't get the denial.
The Prime Minister is asking the mums and dads and adoptees to "accept" her apology.
It's hard not too.
Best to anybody who had to go through this kind of profound loss.
I'm fairly depressed by it all and still believe the mums dads and adoptees will heal with the right attitude and values from their supports today.
Jill
Our society has a duty to help many people
The corporations have to apologise.
The governments and the charitable services (corporations) were there to help (not hinder) the health and well being needs of these mothers.
What happened was there was not only government push to find babies for infertile couples, also a corporate startup which has escalated in the last few decades.
Corporations are to show their humility, not only governments here.
We have a lot who need substantial help to get back on their feet, and it's our society's duty to help these people.
This time not hinder them or take away from them. They've lost far too much already.
The apology on its own won't heal anyone that I can think of.
We need to invest in these people's lives. We need to further acknowledge these lives are worthy as they were when they lost so savagely.
These mothers were made expedient yesterday, today their lives need to be recognised as valuable.
The people of Australia don't want people living in poverty I believe, they are not anti-wealth per se, they are anti-poverty.
Where there has been misfortune for any of the victims of forced adoptions, there needs to be genuine help for the survivors and with care and respect this time.
We have to think about the future of these survivors as well as the future of everyone who lives with less because the top 1 percent or whatever are greedy and taking over, or trying to.
It's like the farmers, they need help at the moment.
Government and charitable services including corpoartions have a role to play in helping.
Compassion is the issue.
We've lost a bit of it in Australia, enough for too many to feel disdain for those less fortunate.
When fact is it's not all about wealth and aquisition at all.
Lives matter no matter when or where in Australia.
Unless we've turned to savages. I don't believe Australians have.
Thanks
Chris
Not enough help being budgeted for the vulnerable
I don't for a minute believe the monies offered for counseling are adequate for the kind of counseling needed for the mothers, fathers and adoptees.
I also think the governments are not the only ones who need to apologise. Corporations are to apologise, it's about time they paid their share of the taxes and allowed Australia to be free of all the poverty we have here.
There is no need for what we have.
We have the means and governments as well as charitible services (corporations often) need to give a hand to these people.
Apologies alone, what do they achieve? I can't see any real depth of healing coming from a meagre apology nor a meagre budget for counseling services.
This is a mean spirited budget for the vast numbers affected by forced adoptions.
We have here a situation, say like we have the farmers who need help, and what was offered was the opposite of help; it was a form of hatred toward these vulnerable mothers. Governments and charitable organizations are meant to help out when people are vulnerable, they did the opposite with forced adoptions.
I don't believe, either, that Australians as a whole want to see the poor ever growing as they are, they want to see balance and real fairness.
I don't believe most Australians think it's o.k. that some of these mothers are living below the poverty line, some of the fathers are, too, and some of the adoptees.
The forced adoptions apology was not meant to highlight the government, it was meant to show we all acknowledge the wrongs of forced adoptions.
I don't for a minute believe most Australians think poverty is o.k. for anyone.
I also don't believe most Australians have a desire for wealth above all else.
We need to tax the very wealthy properly and give those taxes toward education and healing of the less fortunate.
I'm not anti wealth, I'm anti poverty, and all I see at the moment in Australia is a whole lot of greed at the top end of town whilst the rest of Australia be damned.
Not on.
Give more funding to these torn apart families.
The buck stops when all these women lost babies because of others' ignorance and lack of compassion.
We have to bring compassion to Australia or I guess we're damned.
I think the apology is a mere gesture, and how can it heal this kind of massive cover up of outright discriminatory social and family abuse?
Travis
Divide growing because rich corporations set the policy agendas
I think what was said about being monied up as a measure of someone's success is also untrue.
We have a lot of wealthy people who never earnt that wealth, just as in Australia we have a lot of poor who never earnt that poverty.
I think it's a tragic reflection on our society if anyone affected by forced adoptions is living below the poverty line. We're all responsible for each other.
Governments are puppets for corporations who do make the policies. That's tragic also and has to change.
One apology as that's all it is will not alleviate the great disparages we have with wealth in Australia nor will it heal anyone that I know of.
We need to do more for these people.
I think the stories I've read tell me there's a lot of corporate greed in forced adoptions somewhere.
Let's not pretend all the wealthy are do-gooders and all the poor are lost sheep, there's a divide and it's growing because rich corporations are setting the policy agendas.
We have to nip this in the bud.
Best wishes go to those who suffered the insufferable.
I wish you all healing however that can come about individually for you.
Claire
The government are being misers
I totally agree with Travis.
The government are being misers here.
There's an aweful lot impacted by forced adoptions.
Just want to say it's good Welfare Rights and places like Salvation Army are speaking up about another social injustice, a disgrace, the newstart or unemployment benefit.
Having said this it's something the Salvation should look at with forced adoptions, as by saying and doing nothing these people are guilty of negligence.
They were very primary in forced adoptions.
I'm sure they aim to do the right things yet with forced adoptions they did out of ignorance or whatever the wrong things by the mothers and their babies.
I know welfare is in need of a great deal of financial input to enable people to at the very least look for work. What I'm finding with some who have it all as in skills and the rest yet live on zilch because they can't find work is horrifying.
I wonder if there are any mothers, fathers or adoptees on the disgracefully low unemployment benefits?
If so a total disgrace to this government, not the potential staff.
Chris
Sick country that leaves everything to corporations
There was a problem when forced adoptions happened and it exists today as well.
That problem is the outsourcing of essential services by governments in Australia.
This is the corporatisation of fundamental services that the government should be responsible for.
We need Government and one that doesn't bow to the undeserving wealthy.
I think there's a lot to be said about taxing the very rich so those living below the poverty can gain income insurance to cover basic living costs.
At the moment we have a crises with welfare as the Human Rights groups are looking at.
When forced adoptions happened there was a crises also and the government fobbed off its responsibility onto the charities.
These charities didn't do the right thing we now know.
There's something sick about a country that leaves everything to corporations when they know corporations are only about the financial bottom line.
I feel ashamed Australia was part of the baby scoop ers, so was America, where they were founded on tax avoidance.
The multinationals should now step up and pay their due.
A lot opf wealthy never deserved their wealth as they made it crookedly.
I think like another on Indy that a whole lot of the poor don't deserve their poverty.
In Australia it's plain shameful if any of the forced adoption victims are living poorly. Not on Prime Minister.
Shame, Prime Minister.
You've got new lens use them wisely.
Compassion is in vogue in case you haven't got it yet.
Peter
Fearful Gillard will do anything to connect with the wealthiest
I think compassion is definitely expanding in Australia as a lot of citizens have woken up to facts about their governments.
The truth is pretty terrible.
The Prime Minister and her staff are fearful of the wealthiest in Australia.
They'll do anything to maintian some connection with them for political reasons.
We have a government whereby both majpr parties are right from the Centre.
I give credit to only one political party for this apology and that's the Greens.
We need more of their egalitarian voices and actions.
With Forced Adoptions all I can say is how atrocious and an apology I doubt it will do very much.
It's an acknowledgment and that's about it.
I also think the budget for therapy for those who need it is miserly.
As is the budget for some Arts thing they want to do in commemoration for this.
Tax the undeserving rich as one commentater said, there are quite a few out there. They got their money by illegal and destructive means.
Lend a hand to the undeserving poor.
Compassion for these mothers, it's a start.
This is way over due, the apology
It's now a necessity.
David
These mothers should be suing for fortunes
These mothers should be suing for fortunes.
This is one of the worst abuses of power I've ever heard about.
The mothers lives were virtually considered as unworthy of being the mothers.
Truth is they will always be the biological mothers and have all the evidence to prove this.
Sue the lot of them and for what your worth a fortune.
Scoo
Rigid minds, rigid black and white thinkers back then
I forgot to mention that there are some cases going to trial re. forced adoptions.
I also spelt my name wrong.
I'm Scott.
What I think is Australia was very right thinking back when forced adoptions happened.
Rigid minds, rigid black and white thinkers a lot of them.
This doesn't excuse what was imposed on the mothers and their babies, and they do need compensations, and large ones.
If this happened to my daughter I would be suing for a small fortune for her.
Scott
Bullying hypocrite Benevolent Society celebrating their glory
The apology is just that an apology.
The Benevolent Society are at this time and place celebrating their glory.
What a sham.
They are the first Australian "charity" however they are one of the richest corporation.
They were some of the perpetrators of forced adoptions.
My family and I will not celebrate such hypocrites as these.
They are no more a charity that Scientology.
This is a disgrace they being promoted.
I'm all with the people who've raised that we have to and no two ways about it promote empathy and compassion.Not Corporate Greed.
Corporate greed was in part why the Benevolent Society were involved in forced adoptions.
They are a bully culture and one that needs to be investigated due to their "corporate" status as a "charity".
The first Australian "charity" ends up accruing so much wealth and power at the cost of lives with forced adoptions and in other places.
Not on.
No celebrations for unethical practices.
I do recommend "Ethical Mindfullness in Everyday Life" by the Dalai Lama for the likes of that pathetic mob, for everybody who cares in Australia.
It's about time ethics took its place in this country's operations.
My family and I send on our empathy to all affected by forced adoptions. They shouldn't have been.
Ryan
Ban that charity, tax them to the hilt
Ryan you took the words out of my mouth.
When I saw adds for Bensoc I thought of PARCS who treated two biological mothers I know with contempt.
Ban that charity, it's not charitable at all
Tax them to the hilt government who is taxing corps.
Megan
Benevolent Society have a lot to apologise for, own big property
The government outsource a lot to Post Adoption Resource Center that is Benevolent Society.
Thanks for your information,I wont be going to them for help or counseling.
If they are a corporation and a charity that does it for me.
I think they have a lot to apologise for.
I know they own so much costly property, enough to house the homeless, yet none of us see any services from them for the homeless.
With forced adoptions I'm an adoptee, and I'm just learning about all this chaos and corruption. There's a lot to learn amd some of it is sickening with forced adoptions and other social issues.
The apology, at least the Government did acknowledge. They need to do more.
Thanks Indy
When do we grow up and have some decent values and attitudes?
How many Sorry's will the government make?
What about the vcorporations apologising?
They are as Megan says taking babies and profits whilst to hell with the mothers and their babies.
Never on.
When do we grow up and have some decent values and attitudes in Australia?
Noel
We need the Wikileaks Party to make Australia fair, just, humane
The Wikileaks Party is all about what you write Noel.
This party is all about making government and corporations "responsible" or really they are about justice and humanity.
We have an insane lot of corporations who are called charities gobbling up all this land and discarding everything except profits.
We have all this spending cuts on basic essential things like Welfare Rights.
We need the Wikileaks Party and how.
I've never understood how secret Australia was until I read about this forced adoptions fiasco.
You've got to be kidding me.
How on earth could adoptive parents consider taking a baby from mothers who were so vulnerable.
It's still happening.
There are still "secrets" the government and corporations are not talking about with Forced Adoptions.
They will surface.
Until that time I think an apology is yet another one this government has made.
I think to these mothers are remarkable to have fought for this social injustice.
What gives anybody the right to claim another's baby for their own without going through the process of birthing?
When a mother gives birth there are certain things that happen to her.
The baby and mother prior to birth are one.
I think a lot of prospective adoptive parents are far too shallow in the way they flippantly discard the biological mothers.
They way they did as well.
Sure, adoption when that's what the mother wants.
Nothing should be forced or coerced.
That's bullying at it's most primitive.
Wikileaks Party, I hope they get in.
We need this influence in Australia.
There's too much division in Australia.
I see super wealthy and the few whilst there are so many without even the basics.
Many are living with the basics in very shoddy conditions and environments.
Yet this is "fair" Australia.
It wasn't fair when Carr was silent and did nothing to help Julian Assange.
It wasn't "fair" when forced adoptions happened.
It wasn't fair when the government cut funding to Welfare Rights.
When do we get fair.
We need the Wikileaks Party.
We need all the conscionable standing their ground now, with a leap of faith into a more virtuous projection of future.
This apology and what is offered for counseling is way over due and means nothing to me personally.
I have no idea what it would mean if I were one of the affected somehow I think it would be far more over due.
There's one mother I know whose going through a hell of a time right now.
If there's one there must be more. I don't think it's a cross these mothers should ever have had to bare.
Absolute cruelty, brutal as it gets.
We can't compare brutalities so I wont write about the others I know of in "fair" Australia.
We have to refind that fair and the Wikileaks Party will do that.
George
Another punitive experience seeking their own flesh and blood
I'm primatily concerned abut who the government will send the victims to for counselling.
I know a little abut PARC (Bensoc) and they're indifferent to the point of contempt.
I don't think governments should keep on giving money to super rich charities to clean up messes they in part made. It's rediculous. They'e not "charitable in the true sense of the word".
PARC or Post Adoption Resource Centre had a woman named Margaret McDonald in charge.
She was well known for speaking down to, being obnoxious to the bioloigcal mothers.
Don't confuse her with the eminent Margaret McDonald Lawrence (what a remarkable woman)overseas. The latter is to be highly commended for her work on adoptions.
It's the Australian one I'm concerned about.
Her influence filtered down into the lives of these mothers going to PARC to pay a fee, obtain a kit for further search for identifying information, and possible reunion with their children.
I've met with several of these mothers and they all gave the same feedback.
It was yet another punitive experience for them when all they wanted was basic information about their own flesh and blood.
Something was tragically wrong with this matronly woman Margaret McDonald who stood over the mothers.
I don't know if PARC have changed just don't think they should have anything to do with the counseling these mothers need.
Professionals in anxiety and depression (beyond blue) are more appropriate.
After the apology, that's where we're at.
There's not a lot of news media about what's happening with all this.
I'd like to know what the government are tangibly doing to help these mothers gain resolution to this baby scoop era.
There's no way a government, corporation or charity would take my baby away from me.
I'd be in court fighting for the life of me.
Yet these mothers were so demoralised they couldn't even do this at the times.
Shocking social cause.
Julie
Patronising apology doesn't recognise mothers are all different
I've got a different perspective about forced adoptions.
Knowing one amazing woman who went through that and her character, I don't think patronising these mums is the right way to give an apology.
As if they are all bearing a cross.
The apology in its full text is patronising not recognising these mothers are all different.
Identity versus role diffusion as Eriksson wrote about.
Some found their identity from the most profoundly tragic loss of their child to forced adoption.
It's all about the individual. Individuals differ.
I have no doubts a lot of these women would be fairly neurotic as a consequence.
Some depression and anxiety, if not a lot. But all individual.
The apology was very generic, that's the trouble with governments.
They want to be seen as identities yet would make sure the citizens are in the role diffusion camp.
Sorry is not enough here.
Ben
Fathers are it in Australia, and therein is a lot of the trouble
I'm with Ben and all who've said the government have given an apology that is condescending.
As if these women are all so downtrodden, not.
The ones I know are stronger in character than most mothers I know, and I know lots due to my work.
I think this Mothers Day we all should be apologising to the mothers of forced adoptions and giving them the dignity they so deserve.
To go from being a pregnant young one to such a traumatic loss and the subsequential highest distress is daunting to even contemplate.
I hope they all enjoy a really happy mothers day this year, and all to come.
If some of them have rejecting sons or daughters that's the issues of those rejecting sons and daughters.
I know it must be hard but adoptees with chips on their shoulders because they were wanted and loved and now know it yet didn't long ago, get over it.
The mothers had to were forced to sacrifice far too much for you.
Start learning how to love your mothers.
We live in a country were fathers are it, and therein is a lot of the trouble.
How did we get to be so anti-motherhood? I see kids treating their mums with disdain on a regular basis, how so?
Policies made by the powerful corporations set the agenda. That agenda has to change, we're nowhere without the love and nurturing of our mothers.
Religion has a place in all this, a destructive at that.
Brett
Some if not a lot of these mothers are stronger than the average
Ben is spot on.
The apology makes out like these mothers are all so downtrodden.
As if.
I know one who has two other children grown, a husband and is doing fine with a good therapist.
She told me once the government are only part of the problem, it's the way the government keep tending out their services to corporations.
Victims is the wrong word also.
Being victimised and being a victim are two different things.
Some if not a lot of these mothers would have more strength than your average mum. I admire these women, immensely.
Who could go through that kind of nightmare and come out with sure a nuerosis but stay alive.
I think I would have died at childbirth in those circumstances. Maybe in a way some did.
I don't think an apology and a bit of counseling will help those who never looked at themselves.
Those people need a whole lot more and deserve it.
Merrill
The two major parties are now so right wing
The Baby Scoop Era was all about power abuse, bullying and politics.
It's not enough to say sorry.
How many times have these mothers heard that in their lives.
You don't survive a holocaust like that without having the right stuff.
What the problem was then it still is today.
We have the bullies using power control threats to all sorts of prominent people like say Assange.
We have the bullies in the corporations calling the shots about what is spent where, not the government.
We do need government, just not one that has no scruples.
I'm related by blood to a beautiful woman who lost her first born to the baby scoop era (forced adoption) and I give her so much credit for how she's
contributed so much to society.
There are a lot of things this apology and what caused it to happen raises.
The main theme of course is power abuse will not be tolerated.
The second theme is mothers matter.
They are never secondary to fathers, or parents who can't conceive or don't want to.
The prime minister's apology to forced adoption is just another apology.
We do need government and not one of the two leaning to the right ones we have at the moment.
There should be more government, not less, more with scruples and the right values and attitudes.
How did it happen the two major parties are now so right wing these buggers.
We know the answers when we look at the values and attitudes and how things have transpired including things like this, forced adoptions.
Power abuse is never tolerable and should always be addressed the minute it happens.
Too much hidden in Australian politics and with the corporations who were involved in these "secret" forced adoptions.
Happy Mothers day to the real mothers.
This time it's the ones who gave birth.
It always will be for those of us who have that value.
Melville
I have always held onto the hope of knowing you
It's mothers day and I suppose there's all these mothers with their children.
I'm not.
There' no self pity just realisation I have grand childrebn because I was that young when I gave birth to my first baby.
I wanted to raise that baby.
No one heard me at all.
The apology says "we hear you now". That's so far after the facts so many brought to the governments attention.
I don't think the prime minister has for a minute insight into the well of sadness about this kind of loss.
Apologies are a start they also make people like me think about that horrible time more than I need too.
I will not see my own child on mothers day.
My own child doesn't know I exist.
I'm with my family who are my two closest friends, and I hope somewhere out there my child knows I have always held onto the hope of knowing you.
Taking that away from a mother is for me heartbreaking.
What is worse is I know there were political legal and corporate creeps involved in this and they don't care and haven't the slightest ability
to be empathic.
I've learnt to live with a well of sadness. It will pass though at the moment I find it hard to take.
I think the counseling should be from specialist counselors who are up to date with forced adoptions.
Happy Mothers day, when it isn't happy for so very many who can never see let alone talk to and know their own born children.
Mothers day is one of the saddest days of the year for me.
I hope some people a lot get some good out of the apology I can't feel much from it.
It's been said to me too many times in my life.
I'm looking for resolution to forced adoption I had.
I'm searching for this.
I have a good support network of loving people.
For this I'm grateful.
Families of the mothers have to own up to neglecting adolescents
My biological mother was emotionally abused by her parents even before she got pregnant.
I think the families of these mothers have to finally introspect and own up to their neglect with the adolescent mums.
One thing too about corporate money, and all that's been written here about corporate charities.
They are problems.
The large amounts of corporate monies have made both major political parties RIGHT.
I don't mean right as without error here. Right agendas. They are almost the same.
I too feel shame the Benevolent Society are being promoted as "charitable" when they are a super rich corporation NOT CHARITABLE AT ALL. Have had several clients with total horror stories about this mob of greedy wealth and power is all there is lot.
They're sick.
We have to deal with truth when we're talking about apologies for what was one of the sickest ways mothers and their babies have ever been treated.
The apology not near enough to heal these mothers, fathers and their babies.
Get rid of the problem which is the greedy wanting too much and leaving the decent to be exploited. This is not Australian spirit to me.
The fortunate are meant to help the less fortunate and losing to forced adoptions is the cruelest misfortune for anyone.
Brendan
Gvt should give these mothers justice, not just an apology
It's sad to read about forced adoptions.
I became depressed knowing my mother went through what she did.
I get help and therapy from my wife.
I want the government to give these mothers justice, not just an apology.
Mark
Beware the wounded healers
Beware the "wounded healers".
There are groups who offer suport in form of counselling when they are in fact wounded and damaged people themselves.
They have not attended professional counselling so can't give this to their "clients".
This is a warning for people appraoching church run institions for "care" and "counselling".
As well as the "charity" ones, and inclusive of the adoption support groups.
"wounded healers" first and foremost have to do the hard work of lengthy analysis, before they even begin to offer any sincere and professipnal coulsel.
Father of three
Professional
I suffered enormously from uncharitable churchy people
I went to two of these so called adoption support groups only to find very angry wounded women.
They were so angry, and I am with a wonderful supportive person so didn't need that kind of counsel.
I think what's been said about the charities and churches having very damaged people is true.
I've been horrified hearing some of these talk down to their clients.
Not only talk down they talk of their own horrific tragedies, and this isn't limited to just church and charities.
Some professional Counsellors are inept and talk about themselves instead of actively listening to their clients.
This is a big topic.
I have suffered enormously because I've been directed to churchy people who are anything but charitable.
I've also been attending two groups at one time or another where they were all clearly in need of professional counselling.
I think Beyond Blue is a good starting point.
At least I know it's for me.
I think the government are out of step funding some things they fund and not funding others they should fund.
Health needs a hand and only with qualified empathic compassionate staff.
Thanks
Claudia (Alias)
To those being "ignored" I can only say don't wear it
The Apology is accepted by me with dignity.
It's a very real acknowledgment and one would have to be fairly bitter not to accept such an apology.
I'm not saying one is bitter if one doesn't accept it as all there is needed done.
On a separate subject to do with forced adoptions.
I raise the issue of the "Silent Treatment".
This is when a mother meets her child usually adult child at reunion, they have some contact and then the adult child withdraws and gives the mother the silent treatment.
If one looks at the professional material on this topic you'll find it's plentiful and awareness enhancing.
"Ignoring" or "giving the silent treatment" say from a boss can happen when that boss is hostile, and wants to wound you, This can weigh you down with self doubts.
With family who ignore you or give you silent treatment it can often be a form of "punishment" you don't deserve.
They want to "punish" you nonetheless, their issue.
It can also be a form of manipulative, controlling behavior designed to make one feel inadequate and wrong or to put one's equilibrium out of whack. It's a nasty ploy used by manipulative controlling people who are usually deeply insecure.
I've experiennced the "silent treatment" twice after two reunions with my child taken for adoption.
It's been really difficult to understand UNTIL I was handed a wealth of material on the why's and wherefores of such treatment.
To those who are being "ignored" or given the "silent Treatment by friends, family or importantly here their lost babies now grown I can only say, don't wear it.
Take up your lives and live them well being an enthusiastic doer in whatever field you work in.
If you are a family person and don't have unpaid or paid work then again take up the family that is with you, and don't take to heart the hurts the "silent treatment' person is giving you, have nothing to do with the "ignoring" daughter or son of birth.
I don't mean "ignore" them, just step carefully and know what they're doing.
There's not a lot of knowledge brought to people's attention about the damage "silent treatment" can do, yet there is lots of information about it on the web and in books one can find.
Silent Treatment is a form of manipulation and control.
It's used by those who consciously or unconsciously want you to feel inferior. You are not if you've suffered the loss of your child to forced adoptions, so move on with that knowing.
I know of one couple where the husband used this treatment on his wife. This was to "punish" her for what he wrongly interpreted she had done.
The damage of "silent treatment" can be very painful.
That's why it's imperative to see it's the person whose acting this out, ignoring you, who has some large issues, may be very depressed or frankly of a character which needs therapy.
Silent treatments can destroy so many valuable relationships. They have as i know it.
I'm really concerned when I hear about people being "ignored" when they are extending themselves for right and decent communications.
Good on the Prime Minister for making this Apology.
It dosen't take into accout that there are those who have family members, friends and their own flesh and blood who give them the silent treatment, and ignore them.
That's very sad but has to be overcome by the person going toward those who don't "ignore" the person.
I'm fortunate I have lots of these who don't ignore me, the one who does I accept and move on.
"We hear you now" in the apology.
That's after years of being "ignored".
However, there can be forgiveness when one is not bitter and sees the value of acknowledgement of past wrongs regarding forced adoptions.
Thanks
"Silent treatment" is a form of emotional abuse
2) I forgot to say:
"Silent Treatment" or "Ignoring" a person/s is a form of Emotional Abuse.
This whole topic Forced Adoptions has so much Emotional abuse I'm astounded.
This is one area a lot of people miss as they're always looking for physical signs of damage.
Forced adoptions has both these abuses included.
Very sad history, it doesn't have to be the future.
Thanks again
My father has never got over it - more than an apology needed
The emotional abuse that you've raised.
It's writhe in Forced Adoptions.
That's why the Salvation Army and the Benevolent Society got and get away with murder.
They need their heads read and to be scrutinised until they own up to their greedy discriminatory practices.
I'm tired of hearing about church connections who are anything but Christian.
My father was with w young girl who fell pregnant and lost to forced adoptions.
He's never got over it.
Things have a way of affecting more than immediate.
There should be more than an apology thanks.
Greer
Mainstream news doesn't promote decent Australian values
Australians are generous of spirit and with that they want to see positive outcomes for the mothers, fathers and children in forced adoptions.
The mainstream news is always distorting truth and makes out like Aussies are not generous of spirit. For most part you can find we are.
We do have divides.
We do have big corporate money moving the Government to the right.
We do have decent values as a people, the mainstream news doesn't promote this.
That's a big one to conquer.
We need values that promote empathy and compassion.
I think the Dalai Lama has it right and wonder what he'd say to the victims of forced adoptions.
An Apology can't in itself "heal" it can lay down that acknowledgement of tragic wrongs.
If they are happening again, and we can't know this for sure, as the corporations are still silent as lambs about this topic, shame, and shame again.
It will be revealed and no apology will be enough.
Samuel
Something tells me this is still happening
These mothers in forced adoptions were used and abused.
Does an apology give them the ability to trust governments and church run organisations.
I can't fathom how this was kept so quiet until more recent times.
To use a girl or woman to supply a married couple with a baby is market forces at its most primitive.
I'm a proponent of justice and this forced adoptions isn't over with an apology.
To use a girl or woman to supply a demand - that's sick.
You wonder what the parents of these girls and women were all about too.
I'm wondering how Australia can grow up because I know this is not something that's stopped happening.
If the government and "charities" can make money out of bereft pregnant girls and women they will do so. They don't care.
If they cared there'd be more than this apology with it's rediculous assumption the mothers alone need therapy.
Something tells me this is still happening.
The sale of babies, after all, is big money, and all charities and churchs think about is this now.
This has me stumped in depression. My first girlfriend lost her baby this way.
Shame on the lot of them.
Paul
A
Terribly saddened and send the victims my sincere condolences
Forced adoptions utterly depressing to hear of these.
Australia has a lot of "growing up" and being tancparent and accountable here on.
Terribly saddened to know this and send the victims my sincere condolences.
Moore
There should be actions to match the fine words
This information is useful and timely.
Fred Foldvary writes in The Progress Report:
"To remedy social ills, replace ignorance, apathy & greed with knowledge, sympathy & clarity."
"Greed exploits the ignorance of the majority who do not have sufficeient sympathy to counter the greedy faction/s".
Thanks Fred Foldvary. This is helpful for my wife and I with all this.
There's too much telling chaos in Forced Adoptions.
They're tragedies and there should be actions to heal these mothers and their children to match the fine words.
In industrial countries the justice systems [usually] considers a human life "priceless".
That is we value each and every human life.
Pricing the priceless without the consent from the victims in forced adoptions, this needs justice and healing.
Let's face it a lot of these babies were with prtivate adoptions, not all were public and lots of money changed hands.
Now these victims require actions to match the words - compensations from the corporations and governments involved.
Pell apologising today for other social injustices in Australia, thats another total distortion of what "christian principles" were and are all about, whether one is christian or otherwise.
I'm shocked with this lot too.
Healing and justice for them.
Intolerable that States and Territories are not compensating
In Australia all adoptions are made under the separate States and Territories.
These are the government bodies who need to compensate the victims of forced adoptions.
It's intolerable they haven't even considered this action as yet.
My condolences to the victims.
Mark
Out-of-control parents dragging children into politics
The Prime Ministers Apology is a very good one.
What I see as intolerable is parents (whether adoptive or other) using their children, by dragging them into poltics in the form of throwing sandwiches at the Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
That is shameless behaviour on the part of those parents.
Children are not objects to be used in any way just as the young girls who suffered at the hands of mercenary others in forced adoptions were "used" for benefit of "certain parents" and all others concerned.
This dragging children into politics by throwing sandwiches says nought about the Prime Minister and buckets about the out-of-control parents of these children.
How disgarceful that kind of behaviour is.
When do these kinds of parents "grow up" and "contain" their children with love and care not such empty and mindless gestures.
Many Australians are disgusted by this as I have had a stream of contacts talking about this.
Leave children out of these nasty acts.
Leave the Prime Mimister to have her basic dignity just as all who are concerned about the women in forced adoptions need theirs.
Parents - It's not a flippant role whereby you "train" you children to do acts that are so crude.
With Forced Adoptions - the parents also have an obligation to admit some responsibility if/when their children lost to forced adoptions.
Making judgements, we all have to when parents start abusing their children.
The sooner the better
The sooner children learn about politics, the better, though it doesnât have to be by throwing sandwiches.
But itâs better to have thrown a sandwich as a young one than to become one of those apolitical zombies whoâll tell you round the barbie, beer in hand, âdonât bother me with politics, mate, theyâre all a bunch of ratbagsâ.
They are, but only because the disinterested mob allows them to be and to screw us around.
Politics begins in the family home.
Authoritarian parents raise cowardly children.
People get the governments they deserve.
Australians won't allow another Howard/Bush set
People get governments the richest corporations want us to have.
We don't get what we ask for. That's obvious by what is happening with Change.org, Get-up etc. The people are thinking on their feet.
There is one difference.
Howard and Bush had to go as did their politics.
I don't think Australians are all that mindless to allow another set as those two.
With Forced Adoptions.
Shame on the multinational corporations.
There's something wrong with our society and it's that money is at the centre of almost everyrthing, rather than the people and their welfare and health.
Good luck to the victims of forced adoptions.
I have empathy for you all.
Andrew
No 3rd term allowed
Bush had to go because American presidents are only allowed two terms.
And I really love your first sentence. Spot on.
We are not all zombies by a long stretch
T o The Sooner the Better.
It's how you introduce politics to children that's the issue there.
Allowing your kids or getting your kids to throw sandwiches at one parliamentarian is not how you do it.
Further
In case you haven't noticed the people are not satisfied with the governments all of them at every level.
We are growing more aware all the time of one truth:
The Rediculously huge role of mega money in politics is the true picture.
Everybody has to understand the growing corporatocracy.
It's overtaking everthing.
The people do want these victims to gain justice.
The people do want a "fair" Australia.
It's the large corporations who are overtaking the whole dynamics of politics.
You tell us how we Control these?
Your argument about the people get the government they deserve is not a truth.
Survey as many people as you can and see how they really think.
We don't want chaos, abuse, corruption and the rest. We are not all zombies by a long stretch.
It's enough what has been done to date.
So why is the country so comfortably, cozily quiet?
âIt's how you introduce politics to children that's the issue there.â â Not entirely. The issue is to introduce them. Howâs that going to happen when Australians by and large are totally apathetic towards politics? âWe are not all zombies by a long stretch.â â So why is the country so comfortably, cozily quiet?
âAllowing your kids or getting your kids to throw sandwichesâ â why is this such a big deal? A prime minister who allows refugee children to rot behind razor wire is a fair target for a sandwich.
âPeople are not satisfied with the governmentsâ â so why do they elect them? Ask any candidate where they stand on mega money in politics, and if they flap around trying to answer, ignore them. Granted, though, Libor and Laberal all live in corporative colons. Canât tell you, either, how to control them.
âThe peopleâ count for nothing except numbers of ballots.
âIt's enough what has been done to date.â â Donât savvy this one.
Politics is outside of the home
Politics is outside of the home.
The dynamics of family are hardly like the dynamics of politics.
Unless we're all polotical scientists and we're not we have to learn from experience and knowledge what is right in politics.
What is shamefully wrong in the politics of adoptions is the government had such a huge influence over the parents lives.
An unwarrented and intrusive influence against the biological mothers and their babies.
I find this all very depressing and am against a lot of adoptions.
It's too much about money and lives are not all about just the dollars.
We're not America. Thank goodness for that.
Politics is very much inside of the home...
Every decision politicians make ends up in your face.
The moment you smack a child you are teaching it that violence is a means of resolving issues.
The moment a child sees parents not living as equals, it learns that stronger dog eat weaker dog is ok, i.e. it's alright in society to throw your weight around.
All our behaviours teach our children.
Children are pure.
We wreck them.
That's politics.
Inside the home.
People don't get the governments they deserve
people don't get the governments they deserve.
That's diminishing the value of all Australians.
We want high standards, many of us, and the governments fail with their crooning to the rich and neglecting the poor. Keeping standarsda and values too low for a great many Australians.
As a collectively rich nation we can do more than apologise to these vulnerable mothers and their babies.
I'm disturbed this happened in Australia and hope it isn't continuing.
Mother of three and I work in the private sector, not a corporation that neglects it's responsibilities to the clients and society as a whole. I wouldn't work for any other kind. They're not church corps.
Those I wont go near they have lost my trust completely.
We put them there with our votes...
....and we allow them to perpetuate themselves with an electoral system designed to prevent anything other than Libor/Laberal.
If you don't scream and kick, nothing will change. My word for it is the "barbie-lethargy".
Apology means very litte long after the profoundly tragic events
Yes only two governments at the helm, not so good.
This has to change.
Forced adoptions was a travesty of justice and inhumanity.
Let these women and their children heal.
Give them all compensations as an apology means very litte long after the profoundly tragic events.
Rod