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 Children’s Department at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, wrote:
“In New South Wales most unmarried mothers… are more likely to be poor, undernourished and of low intelligence, if not actually retarded.”
In 1959 Dr Donald Lawson of the Royal Women’s Hospital remarked during an address that:
“The 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 adopted…The last thing that the obstetrician might concern himself with is the law in regard to adoption.”
The removal policies and practices born from attitudes such as these, according to Prime Minister Julia Gillard “created a lifelong legacy of pain and suffering.”
“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,” said Prime Minister Gillard. “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.”
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 Australia’s 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 hadn’t 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 parents’ 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 “official apologies should include statements that take responsibility for the past policy choices made by institutions’ leaders and staff, and not be qualified by reference to values or professional practice during the period in question.”
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.
“As 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.”
“I 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.”
“To strip a mother of her baby is a cruel, cruel act. But to leave a baby alone is another. And that’s 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.”
“My 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.”
“I 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.”
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.
“As 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.”
“Given 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 duality—of being part of a family and yet very much separate from them.”
“Being removed from my mother’s body after birth traumatized me. Having my identity removed—my entire story about who I was—shattered 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.”
One submitter to the senate inquiry described the difficult experience of learning of her adoption as an adult.
“I 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 one’s 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.”
Many adoptees report having experienced difficulties in their adult lives which they relate to the trauma of their adoption.
“I 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 mother’s life? What was she passionate about? What sort of person is she? What sort of family did/does she come from?”
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.
“I 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.”
Indeed, according to Ms Charlotte Smith, “A mother whose child has been stolen does not only remember in her mind, she remembers with every fibre of her being.”
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 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 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
We owe it to these mothers to give them tangible compensations
These women were told over and over again by bureaucrats who worked for the government they were 'not motherly'.
For years until a law was passed they couldn't know anything about the babies they lost.
I don't think sample speech as the one given by the PM means anything.
These women were told they were 'unworthy' and that unsuredness has remained with very many for a long time.
They wanted to understand the horrors inflicted and all they got were bureacrats calling the shots.
Bureaucrats telling them one way or another 'you're not o.k.'.
We owe it to all these mothers to give them tangible compensations.
To live with that shadow constantly with the mothers all their time would be tragic enough, without all the other horror.
An apology has to be followed up with actions that help these mothers fully heal and be part of society as mothers as they always should have been.
No name of the fathers on the birth certificates, sure enough, but all shame on the mothers name.
That's intolerable.
This sickens my family and I.
Tony
Something about this the feminists have not brought up, YET
I agree with Tony.
It's totally intolerable.
I didn't know of this until a friend who knows one of the mothers showed me this website.
What did they think the mothers were - objects. They were used up and nobody can "get over that" as if.
They were treated as objects to birth babies for couples who 'wanted" other people's babies.
Doesn't that say a lot about all this.
You don't get to do all the pregnancy work as I have done three times only to lose it to people who want what I or others have.
There is something about this the feminists have not brought up, YET.
Sally
For my friends constant confidante
NSW government treated these mothers abominably yet again
The NSW governments apology is not sincere.
The Commonwealth governments apology will not be sincere until they have the appropriate safeguards for these traumatised mothers and their families.
We've seen what NSW Government does first hand and with several of these mothers.
It's on record and abominable.
They have treated these mothers wrongly yet again.
They want to amalgamate their councils into one super council so these mothers and everyone else can't have any say in the developments in their neighbourhoods.
Too bad the NSW government doesn't understand we all know you're corrupt, chaotic and abusive already.
What would happen if we were to amalgamate all these councils.
They think about their own short term goals and forget about the future of our citizens.
citizens matter.
The devaluaing of these mothers has to stop. We've noticed it's continued in another way.
It's not on. Governments on every level now have to be sincerely accountable, not least to these mothers and their families.
They are as we know it of the best intentions and deserve to get over all they've been through without all these bureaurocrats doing it wrong all over again.
The abuse comes from the top, it has to stop.
Intent to act where necessary with lawyers at hand.
Terry, Jason and family
The bullies and intimidaters end up bullied and intimidated
It's not just the bullies and intimidaters in government.
The private sector are those who make a bucket out of adoptions.
The bullies and intimidaters end up being bullied and intimidated by others. They are real losers unlike these brave mothers and their babies.
As well as this the forced adoptions were about money spinners for the rich or those who could pay for a baby.
I'd like to know how much a baby is worth these days in NSW.
So there, the bullies and intimidaters are all losers with massive issues. I can't stand the lot of them and you have to know what their on about so you don't get used. They're users.
I don't think the victims of forced adoptions need therapy all the bullies and intimidaters one and the same do.
So there.
Michael Lehmann
As if the voters will stand for this
I'm from Victoria and I see what is being said here.
The big money thinks it can buy anything babies included.
They can't buy Victoria or NSW or any state or country.
The citizens of Australia have every right to have a say in both property and people who live here.
That amalgamation of councils stinks and they should be ashamed of thinking like that.
As if the voters will stand for this.
There are too many with big pockets calling the shots.
No way will they be able to handle what will happen if they turn unmarried mothers out of homes or turn homes into megs complexes like malls.
We are Australia not New York Clover.
She signs enough developers forms herself.
Doeds it time and again despite what the people want.
Then she at least is now speaking out as the bigger guns are twisting their creepy hinges.
There's too much thought for short term goals with government.
Long term would have never allowed things like forced adoptions.
Geraldine
You don't really think voters can change anything, do you?
If elections changed anything, there wouldn't be any.
But least of all will anything change if you vote Libor or Laberal.
You might try Greens, at least they tell it as it is.
They've done pretty well putting the squeeze on Gillard's Labor.
But even so, you don't really think voting changes anything, do you?
As I've said here before, we get the governments we deserve.
As long as "don't bother me with politics" stays the word around the barbie.
We need to make amends to these mothers and their babies
Totally agree the Greens should get in.
Without a doubt they act on things and get things done.
I fully support the apology to these vulnerable mothers.
Further they the government should pay them a benefit befitting such a loss.
If I los on of my children I know I wouldn't survive it.
It's how it is.
An apology is just words.
We need to make amends for what these mothers and their babies had to go through.
The NSW government and Victorian government have apologised.
I'm not sure what state hasn't or has really but they all should do more than apologise.
They were the main culprits in all this.
The way the are trying to oust Clover Moore is an utter disgrace.
That's what the property development merger of councils is all about.
This is another corrupt, crazed tragedy in NSW anyway.
Best of good luck to all the mothers and your children.
Don't let anyone treat you as a pawn in the system ever again.
My best friend or close friend was a victim of this.
I know what she went through and how she's been treated ever since.
The systems have really damaged her now she has to have help where otherwise if they were civil and caring she'd be a whole lot different.
I know she's together in so many ways but when her child's birthday comes up or any reminder about forced adoptions comes up she's lost.
This is a tragedy to me as well as all her circle of friends and family.
Something more needs to be done.
Christiana
Lyall
Mothers treated mercilessly under umbrella of religious "good"
Don't think "don't bother me with politics" is true anymore.
It was once.
Certainly was when forced adoptions happened.
These are a tragedy and should be compensated as such.
All this apologising get these women and their offspring nowehere.
They need professional help.
The fact forced adoptions happened is a scar on Australia's history that wont go away in a hurry.
I can't stand that these mothers were treated so mercilessly, under umbrella of religious "good". The churchs need their heads read so do the governments.
Lisa, Kevin and family
Flagrant inhumanity against vulnerable and valuable mothers
You do wonder why the Greens are not getting up there more.
we don't need a two party government.
More sincere government needed.
My brother and I both know a woman who was brutalised not only by forced adoptions by government interventions of her well-being and life.
She's an anglo saxo and lost her baby to a couple that had to know what sex "it" as they put it was.
The doctor's receptionist was horrified and told them off.
The adoptive parents still got to care and raise my brother and my friends child.
It has been a terrible ride for our friend.
I think compensations are in order.
This is not a slight slip up it's flagrant inhumanity against these vulnerable and valuable mothers.
Give us more than an apology the lot of you.
We don't vote by how much money you build tall buildings with but how you treat the citizens of Australia.
Thanks
Get really well and hope you have the best of good fortune in your lives from now on all the victims of this. It made my brother and I sick knowing all the details.
Not on government, churchs, anybody. Forced adoptions were and are NOT ON!
You wont win votes by using and abusing any women in Australia.
You wont win votes by being misogynists either.
Michelle W.
'It's hard to be a woman in deeply sexist Australia'
By Kathy Marks | 18th Jun 2013 9:00 AM |
http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/its-hard-be-woman-deeply-sexis...
WHEN Julia Gillard comprehensively demolished Tony Abbott in Parliament last year, calling him a sexist and misogynist, women around the world cheered.
When she warned last week that women would be marginalised and their abortion rights threatened under a Coalition government, even her most ardent female fans cringed.
Regardless of context - Gillard was defending a man (the former Speaker, Peter Slipper) whose text messages compared women's genitalia to shellfish - her parliamentary speech was impassioned, forensically detailed and above all sincere.
Her speech to a new fundraising group, Women for Gillard, was entirely unconvincing, sounding like a final, desperate throw of the dice for a Prime Minister facing certain defeat.
Had a certain, now notorious menu not emerged less than 24 hours later, to be followed by an excruciatingly bone-headed grilling of Gillard by a now ex-radio host, her critics - who included some of Australia's leading female commentators - would have received more air time.
But although those two episodes triggered a rush of public sympathy for the country's first female Prime Minister, they have not revived her flagging political fortunes.
An opinion poll in yesterday's Fairfax papers found that Labor's support has fallen 10 per cent among men and risen only 2 per cent among women.
It put Labor's primary vote at 29 per cent, compared with 47 per cent for the Coalition, with the latter 16 points ahead on a two-party-preferred basis.
It's hard to be a woman in Australia these days, torn between distaste for Gillard's cynical attempts to manipulate female voters and revulsion at the depths of misogyny being plumbed by antediluvian sections of the male population.
Never mind whether the "joke" menu was actually distributed at the Liberal National Party fundraiser for Mal Brough - the Mal Brough whose fingerprints are all over the Peter Slipper affair and who is now standing for Slipper's Queensland seat.
With its crude description of Gillard's figure and genitalia, it was typical of the highly offensive material which has been circulating on the internet since she replaced Kevin Rudd.
Would a male prime minister - or a male politician, or any male, for that matter - be described in such terms on a menu? Obviously not.
Would a shock jock interrogate a male prime minister as to whether his female partner was a lesbian? Clearly not.
And yet Gillard has undermined her own cause by scaremongering about abortion and female voices being silenced under Tony Abbott, in a manner insulting to most women's intelligence.
The fact is that, during her three years in office, Gillard has done little to advance female equality.
There are only three women, apart from her, in Cabinet. (Abbott only has two.)
She has reduced state benefits for single mothers. She has resisted calls to preselect a female candidate for the safe seat of Batman, vacated by the retiring minister Martin Ferguson, instead supporting Senator David Feeney, one of the "faceless men" who helped her oust Rudd.
It's also a fact that Australia is still a deeply sexist society.
The menu and radio interview were not the only incidents last week.
Holger Osieck, coach of the Australian soccer team, was caught on camera remarking that "women should shut up in public".
And yet another sex scandal engulfed the Australian military, with revelations of a ring of more than 100 personnel, including senior officers, who had made and circulated "demeaning and explicit" photographs and videos.
Add that to the slap on the wrist received by Collingwood president Eddie McGuire for "joking" on national radio that the Aboriginal AFL player, Adam Goodes, could help publicise the new musical King Kong, and contemporary Australia starts to look very ugly indeed.
When do more women with real pluck and integrity enter politics?
Hells bells that's a lot to understand and I get it mostly.
I'm one of the children who was "Taken".
When do more women with real pluck and integrity enter politics.
Surely we don't want another Howard/Liberal government.
It's already like both two parties are right off the central point.
For the mums who got hurt bu forced adoptions I hope you all have more respect.
I want this for all women in Australia and agree with Anon it's a sexist country Oz.
Jennifer
The best apology not good enough, compensations needed
At the end of the day there are not specialised services to cater for the mums who've been brutally terrorised by these forced adoptions.
They are'nt druggies, they aren't psychos, they're not crims. they're like you and I constituents who want resolve of any traumas in our lives. There just trying to survive some of them and finding this uneasy given the forced adoption can of worms was opened.
It's terrible.
These mums should have compensations given to them as well as specialist counciling
Wish them all the beat apology not good enough. A START FOR A FEW MAYBE.
Louise
Governments appear to despise the impoverished or less fortunate
The inhumanity of forced adoptions knocks me out.
It's not feasable to suggest there was no empathy then.
Is there any today?
Money is buying who will be in power.
That's because big money pay for the election campaigns.
I'm aware we're not yet at America's ugly and disgraceful stabndard of lack of humanity but getting there.
We all have to speak up and out when bullies try it on.
Be they physiical or ethical thugs.
The governments all of them are disproportiantely catering to all those richies who will finance their campaigns.
There's got to be the public voice today.
The public don't want people living sub standard in Australia yet because of our ranking as one of the highest rental figures in the world we do have people living in unsafe and insecure places.
We have the fact these environments could produce another round of forced adoptions that's covered up again.
I am ashamed at how the government is treating single mothers.
That shame belongs to the governments who appear to despise the impoverished or less fortunate.
We all could be less fortunate for reasons totally out of our control that fact alone should alert the governments to doing their work as public servants in an ethical manner.
So far I've contacted 8 forced adoption women.
Only two of these women were doing well financially.
When they took the babies away they obviously left a large hole in these mothers lives.
That's a very sad poll. I've no doubt many are doing just fine too, just haven't met those ones.
We're here to help those who can't help themselves enough and need support.
We're here to have safe and secure living for all the public.
With the homeless numbers rising we're way into inhumanity again.
I don't believe Julia Gillard when she says this will never happen again.
The government are there for their own power and dominance.
They are bullies and have proven that by the way they're treating single mothers today.
What about the fathers paying them some monies?
Whoever wrote about sexist Australia is correct.
We're a shamefuully sexist nation always favouring male dominance.
Miore to the point the role of male dominance.
This forced adoptions scandal wont go away with an apology.
Stephen
Humane people are caring people and these are parent worthy
BIG QUESTIONS need answering
If the adoptive parents were "considered suitable" to adopt other people's babies why then did they the adoptive parents only ask about the well-being of the babies?
Why did they not ask about the well-being of the biological mothers from whom they received the gift of a human life?
Humane people are caring people and these are parent worthy.
Humane and caring people are the only one's who should be enabled to adopt a beautiful child who comes from another's suffering.
Thanks Indy
Like all your causes keep up the good work
This one is particularly good.
How cold were the parents who adopted?
I think likewise.
Who could take a baby from somebody who hadn't the whole picture.
To adopt a baby from somebody who suffered as these mothers did brings a lot of questions up about the "parents who adopted".
How cold were they hey.
Shane
Adoptive parents wanted desperately to conform to American dream
They were also very desperate and into conformity.
The adoptive parents of the 60's, 70's and possibly also the 80's bought the shallow, desperate American dream of a wife or husband, two or more kids and a house of ones own.
One mother who lost her son to forced adoption was given a photo of the adoptive parents (by them in fact) and in the background of the photo of this "happy couple no children in sight" was the American flag.
I have no doubt a lot of these adoptive parents wanted so desperately to conform to that nightmere/dream which sprung from America and the media.
My concern is with the mothers and their babies now mostly grown.
They need more than an apology.
This would be a good society's consideration.
A loss like this doesn't mend with time and needs supportive rather than dismissive attention.
Thanks
50's women hardly ever encouraged to gain a meaningful education
I'm referring to the 50's American Dream, which seems to have re-surfaced in an odd and unusual way.
In that "dream" the mothers (biological and adoptive) were expected to be the chefs, lovers and home makers and the men were the main bread winners. The women may have done some work, hardly ever encouraged to gain a meaningful education.
That didn't work.
It wasn't a dream at all, it was a nightmare as per many fine writers and thinkers novels and works.
That the forced adoption mothers were completely wiped out of the whole scenario is truly shocking.
Where was humanity when forced adoptions happened, where were the values and attitudes which make us truly human and civil?
Thanks again
Biological mums coerced over and over since first major trauma
I've been alerted about several biological mums who've been coerced over and over again since that first major trauma - loss of their babies to strangers.
Freedom entails non-coercive situations and autonomous decision making yet these girls and women were not allowed this natural freedom.
I feel shame at the governments, churches and all the staff involved with forced adoptions.
Today the alert is several of these women if not many have yet again been placed in situations whereby they lack what they have, their autonomy to make the right decisions.
I find the government both irresponsible and neglectful for placing these women in precarious circumstances over and over again.
A friend of mine went to uni. when Tony Abbot was there at med school.
Tony Abbott was then as now a bully.
We don't need any more bullies in Australia.
We already know the damage they've done.
Re. Americana Australia.
I'm totally against what has been done in America due to wrong political decisions.
This includes the huge number of forced adoptions and surrogacy.
Tim
Health Professional
Ex-Prime Minsister got what was coming to her
Now it's the Ex-Prime Minsister's Apology to Victims of Forced Adoptions.
She got what was coming her.
Saying this Rudd and hia wife are full of themselves and money is their main priority.
People are mere pawns to them, same with Tony Abbott and his mob.
Whatever, the mums and babies did get an apology.
That means it's on record this tragic history that has affected so many.
This was large scale discrimination and smash and grab tactics.
It always happens that way doesn't work.
Brian
A terrible part of Austrlia's history
I think compensations should be considered.
I know these were far too devastating losses for these mothers and those I've met have been hurt deeply.
It's a terrible part of Austrlia's history Forced adoptions.
Frank
What was done to Gillard was nasty and sick
Brian, two wrongs don't make a right.
What was done to Gillard was nasty and sick.
I don't barrack for Abbott and can't stand his positon on lots and hope the Greens get more votes now.
We the Australian people are more sophisticated than the governments who are paid to serve this nation.
It's out of whack.
Power to the people.
I'm sick and tired of the gun slinging photo of Rudd on the cover of the Herald.
That's Murdochracy another wrong in Australia.
The victims of forced adoptions have my full support and empathy.
I've no idea how you handled being treated so horrendously.
With this apology there could be some tangible deeds to lift your lifestyles, those of you who have suffered and lost too much more.
To a dearly loved friend who went through the horrors of forced adoptions I ask that there be compensations given.
Regards
Pat
Jenny Macklin intervening with our young girls and boys
I'm sick and tired of Jenny Macklin doing the worst possible things to vulnerable people.
This woman was an overlap of Howard's tragic government that sent in the "troops" in the NT intervention.
Now we see Jenny Macklin is "intervening with our young girls and boys".
This is tragic.
Forced adoptions have surfaced again in a different form.
Macklin needs to step carefully because voters the public don't like what is happening.
The Greens seem to be the only party worthy of attention.
I send forced adoption victims the very best of good fortune.
You all deserve medals for transcending such a horrific past.
Graham
Bitter and angry adoptees take it out on the biological mothers
That the apology was made hasn't altered fact the churchs still wont admit wrong.
The ex primeminister was right to make an apology.
That apology came from a lot of work done by others not the ex primeminister.
I feel strongly forced adoptions counseling should be available to the victims babies too.
Now they're grown they need to face the reality of their birth and stop turning their backs on their history.
I've met too many of these adoptees who are bitter and angry.
They take it out on the biological mothers.
That's the floor.
What Graham says about Macklin am with you Graham.
She's the floor mentally.
A very hostile woman who shouldn't be allowed near parliament or leadership.
Trevor
IT
People will not be quiet whilst governments keep doing wrong
What the public have learned if they have learnt anything meanigful from all this forced adoptions is
The barbaric manipulation of people's lives is not acceptable for Australians.
Australia is one of the wealthier nations yet how many are living below the poverty line is astounding and tragic.
As tragic as forced adoptions.
That the government apologised - what's changing their behavior.
We have so much casual and "unsustainable" work in Australia. Why?
We have so many who come to us begging for money, why?
We have so many who've never known an education of any kind, why?
We have so many politicians with their "fan clubs" instead of catering for the people they serve, they are with egos gone awry.
Australians are not all television watching potatoes and are now fighting back to claim their places in a civil society.
It's about time the government listened, instead of spoke down to, the public in Australia.
We don't want our fellow man or selves to go hungry be without any essentials because of others greed and barbaric manipulations.
So we're not America, true enough, yet the stats. and reality do come into our faces on a regular basis.
We see the poverty. We really tied to America in unhealthy ways. One politician wants NSW to be another New York, and that's something she brags about. Where is her mindfulness.
We know of the barbaric practices that go unquestioned.
We now question.
The mothers and children of forced adoptions are empowered.
A nations wealth and happiness is not all about keeping the richest safe and secure. It's about keeping all Australians safe and secure, without impositions of barbaric practices such as forced adoptions.
These have devastated too many lives.
Change - the people will not be quiet whilst governments do wrong time after time in the people's name.
Fighting back.
No longer victims of systems that were denigrating and totally demoralising.
Fighting back.
Politicians will be on tele. and I for one, along with my partner and many I know will never watch tele. because of these spins and the adds.
Australia has become a bully nation to its disgrace
You mean fighting against the corporatocracy, fighting against the murdochracy, fighting against the tyranny of governments bent on dumbing down Australians.
Education is a right.
Fighting against the governments past and present abuse, chaos and corruption as is in forced adoptions and others Australian wrongs committed and not fully disclosed to the public.
Fighting against those contemptuous politicians who throw morsels to young unemployed as if they can sustain any livlihood at all on the low amounts.
Giving them food cards instead of money.
What kind of tyranny have we here?
Fighting against any and all social injustices that place any Australians in poverty, hard ship or with revolting "food cards". How low did they go there.
It all started in the NT.
How dare the government along with the corporate tycoons play the public as pawns in their selfish and ongoing gluttony and greed.
There's too many who are self aware for politicians to continue trying it on to dumb down Australians.
Politicians and too many unthinking corprate moguls want to dominate and control. They like to be bullies all their lives poor sods. We don't take bullies lying down.
Australia has become a bully nation to it's disgrace.
The people want to have freedom to create and grow, their birthright; and not be bullied into compliance with say another round of forced adoptions or NT interventions.
This includes the mothers, fathers and babies of forced adoptions.
Who's going to do all that fighting?
Who's going to do all that fighting you're calling for?
Can you imagine a Tahrir Square or a Gezi Park here?
I can't.
Let's hope it doesn't take years to reach true democracy
The compassionate always fight against injustustice in their own ways.
They don't have to collect together in any square.
Caring compassionate people touch everyone's heart and head.
The others lose out, eventually.
The fighting against tyranny and big brother nonsense has already begun.
Why do you think we have things like "Get up" and "chane,org" and all those amazing writers and artsists saying it as it is.
We even have a politician who really cares.
It would be hard pressed to expose who that person is.
Fighting back against social injustices is happening whether the bullies like it or not.
That's the thing with bullies.
Their negative and hateful frame of mind always eventually brings them right down.
That's the thing with tyrants who are bullies. The same happens.
I've seen it over and over again in my life this far.
The Australian public did not want Howard government and then the incoming government gathered Howard's policies and used them to their shame.
That's their shame and horror.
They have to live with it.
There's not much thinking to realise these people who take up what the public don't want - Howard Bush governments have the same outcome as Howard Bush.
That we have become Big Brother should shake many and does shake many out of complacency and into action to avert another round of the same.
Fighting against bullies and they are not children yet act like children is ongoing.
People with social consciences will always do this in their own amazing ways.
Empathy and compassion.
Whoever said we have to actively promote this. We do.
There is also a need to fight against tyranny.
How many of us from forced adoptions have been subdued by the powers that be who would rather "lord over us" than admit we have some valid concerns.
The government finally admitted this with forced adoptions.
Did it heal the masses involved.
We do not know about this. I think it was a start.
It took years fighting against forced adoptions.
Let's hope for everyone's sake it doesn't take years for these changes to a true democracy in Australia to happen.
Gillard promoted the ALP at the expense of mothers and children
The ex Prime Minister shamefully promoted her own party at the expense of the mothers and children who were torn apart in forced adoptions.
She hifghlighted Johhny O'Keefe and Holden cars eras not the other side which was and is the Vietnam War, an unjust war no Australian said yes we want this.
No Australian in their right mind wanted to attend Vietnam.
We had the Moratorium.
That we have so many forced adoptions around that time staggers too many and we all know what was really going down with the Australian governments and corporate giants.
There have always been David and Goliath's and always will be.
I have seen this time and again.
Tyrants fall.
Those who fall others with these morsels and patronising hateful talk downs, always fall themselves.
No, we don't need to be angy criminal fighters like some we see in politics, in high places where they think they are immune to scrutinay and accoountability. We do it other ways.
The rich do have an obligation to put back
We have become over commercialised and now need to start seeing compassion, honesty and empathy as necessary.
The rich do have an obligation to [put back.
In America Bill Gates is one such one putting back to eradicate poverty in USA.
Now Australia can learn from a lot of these "fighters".
They are not physical or ethical thugs fighting.'They are real democaracy and humanity fighters.
Look to the artists big and small.
Look to those who show empathy amongst them.
They are the ones who have weathered a lot of hate and been in poverty at times enough to know that unlike what the ABC is trying to publicise, money does not equate to happiness.
The Deaken University writer has a huge ego.That drove her to write that rubbish.
We all kniow mikllionaires who've suffered the insufferable and lost.
Money is not a precursor to happiness.
ABC are off the air lately.
We no longer listen to them.
Keep up the good fight.
You're inspirational.
We want a true democracry.
We don't want involvement in unjust wars.
We don't want any more forced adoptions.
The churchs should be shamed publicly for their roles in those.
Mel
ABC have slid backwards, serving the public old school nonsense
Thanks Mel for what you wrote.
I know Australia is one of the wealthier nations.
ABC have slid backwards.
They are serving the public old school nonsense lately.
I felt the same way about the writer from Deaken Uni was it?She made some very generalised claims that arenn't backed up.
I feel like you she's got an ego issue.
I want a true domocracy yet how to obtain that with what is happening right now.
Let alone what was happening when forced adoptions happened.
Freedom fighters - they're out there.
Good on Bill Gates.
Good on all those who see the problems and actively do something to eradicate them.
The rich in Australia should definitely be paying more taxes and more tward the common good of all Australians.
We need compassion, empathy and trust.
Trust has gone away from government.
We need that back.
It's up to politicians to grow up and gain that trust again.
Whose grown up enough in government to trust with leadership in Australia?
One question that leads to a lot of others.
The drivers of politicians are dominance and influence.
Influence I'm fine with. It's the dominance that's hateful I'm against.
Wanting to dominate people - you have to be a bit wrong to be like that.
Jenny Macklin and her policies are domination the Australian people don't like.
None of us like that we have to see beggars in the streets and halls of Australia.
Or if there are those that hateful, help them, they need major help.
Sven
Campaign against forced Aboriginal adoption in the NT
See http://www.indymedia.org.au/2013/07/03/background-to-keeping-them-home-c...
What they're doing in the NT is horrendous
We have to be vigilant with the media we receive.
There's a lot of propaganda in advertising and the media that makes for the rich never realising the dire straits of their fellow man.
This forced adoptions was about ignorance and abuse on a wide scale.
I do what I can to bring about peace in my life and with those I know.
I can't see this social responsibility in some of my "friends".
They are into a lot of distracting things that don't allow compassion.
I have to emphasise that compassion was missing when forced adoptions heppened to all Australians.
I sincerely hope there is no repeat of this horrific history.
What they're doing in the NT is horrendous.
I am saddened the government has gone too far.
They will lose votes for going that direction because the most influential thinkers, the mindful, are right into compassion.
Not the aggressively going after profits only companies who have destroyed so many lives. I can't believe the big oil and coal companies.
They are the funders for government election campaigns.
The property developers are also way out of kilter.
Australia with it's highest ever prices for real estate.
This has come to a nations shame also.
Nobody pays the kind of monies these property developers are asking for.
These lot are ones we should be making accountable, scrutinising.
It's not a good look for Australia to go too commercial with baby adoptions.
We have learnt even surrogate mothers grieve.
Science is very good.
When it's not moderate, when it's extreme, as in turning a blind eye to the misfortunes of others, it's wrong.
Forced adoptions forced me to see how my own mother suffered.
It's a shocking history of Australia.
Those companies are some of the campaign funding mob for the elections.
We all have t be vigilant here.
Fearless and compassionate.
Mindful.
Vigilant.
We don't want more of what has brought out country into focus as in with forced adoptions.
I wish all the mums, dads and childre of these forced adoptions all the best with healing and finding your fearlessness and life again.
What an ignorant assumption.
Single and unmarried therefore not good enough to raise an infant.
Marriage is good, mine is, however I admire single mums and dads.
It's a very difficult and admirable role.
I think they do so well.
Many of these mums would have married the fathers no doubt.
They were not even allowed to marry, let alone raise their own children.
This is shameful.
We have to change direction with our values and attitudes.
Vince
I'm realising Australia is no longer such a lucky country
Anybody with a social conscience can feel compassion for these mothers, fathers and their babies.
I'm reading the Herald, seeing the front page propoganda.
Murdoch is telling us is very cool to have severe addictions.
The beast of a man Jamie Packer opening a second casino in Sydney.
Problem is Jamie, you don't see the damage you do.
Other people have to clean up the messes you make.
These addictions.
My adopted son became a gambler and it was out of control.
The News shouldn't be sending the public the idea it's so good to have this second casino.
We know right from wrong.
Forced adoptions were unnatural.
Gambling addictions are unhealthy and unnatural
When do the papers stop telling the public what they think.
We don't want another casino in Sydney.
We don't want more forced adoptions.
We are against all the beasts like Packer who think only about profits.
I'm throwing the newspaper in the bin. It's all happening at Barangaroo.
I don;t think it will reap anything but further gambling damages.
I'm realising Australia is no longer such a lucky country.
We have these few making decisions for the masses who don't want what is being done here.
Jamie Packer is far too greedy, and hasn't learnt about anything but profits.
Following his old man's example to a tee.
We need different headlines thanks Sydney Morning Herald.
As if it's so good we have a nation of heavy gamblers.
As if it's o.k. forced adoptions were going on behind closed doors.
Ethical and physical thugs really tried to completely destroy me
I'm one of the mothers who suffered forced adoptions.
Due to a series of violent events against me I have been living in public housing.
It's strange how the public landlords are so bullyish.
They too are big on dominance rather than cooperation and gaining trust.
I've been through a nightmare with property developers in Sydney.
They literally poured cement over my whole self when I was having a shower, gutting the units around, above and below me prior to putting the rent up to an astonomical amount.
I was essentially homeless for a while.
Though not homeless in one sense.
I lived in a rented unit whereby the damp rising was so bad and I was drenched each evening for seven years, paying a very large rent for a rabbit warren.
I worked and propspered in one way, definitely socially.
The new landlord was also unethical.
It's hard to explain here.
Then Andrew Refshauge and others wrote on my behalf for public housing (social housing they so-call it) for me. It was by this a nessecity.
I've found out NSW Housing are either giving their tenants phone numbers to property developers or real estate agents, or otherwise some criminal element has surfaced again.
One of my neighbours keeps getting calls on his home phone from these "profits above people" neocons asking him if he wants to "sell his unit".
He has replied, as he told me, with "I'm a tenant" unaware the "unethical callers" are "invading his privacy" and also breaching his "quiet enjoyment".
It's beginning to show how ruthless these property developers, real estate agents and landlords are abusing their positions.
I think it's time NSW had a thorough investigation into NSW Housing as there seems to be too much of this going on.
The reason I survived my terrible experience of forced adoptions was because I have another child whom I dearly love and am caring toward. I also have the experience of a wonderful man who gives me a lot of caring support. I have security within and how. I'm fortunate in so many ways today.
That I have to live in public housing with the threat of all sorts of criminal elementts is a reality for now.
Yet I will not allow NSW Housing to walk all over me or any of my neighbours as they seem to please.
They already have been shown to be far too familiar and far too invasive of "quiet enjoyment".
That the neighbour got a call from these "profits above people" ilk, this time has again filled me with a lot of awareness, a lot of understanding.
The "profits above people" this is something Jeffrey Sachs writes about. He's one of the most worldy influential people.
He expresses it better than I do.
He doesn't care for this ilk either.
There was no compassion shown me when I was very young and vulnerable with my experience of forced adoptions.
I grew up amidst wealth and a really intelligent family background.
It appears the public landlords or someone who has access to these tenants phone numbers are really trying it on, again.
And this time toward a man who is very vulnerable.
I would hazard a guess most public tenants have some vulnerabilities which are not to be exploited or abused by any of society. This is a disgrace yet again.
However, these ethical thugs are continuously showing me how disdainful they are of those who have any misfortunes or are living where they didn't choose, and where this kind of thing is happening.
If another group of property developers or real estate agents gutts the units around me I imagine I'm very well placed to go public and seize the opportunity to show how evil this all is. I'm with far too much support today to be disregarded this time round. Even as I wasn't yesterday with the lowes et al.
I've no doubt my barrister would be at the helm with all this.
I've managed to make connections with some very ethical and decent people. This has been my work for the last while. Worthy work as it amounts to me comtributing yet not with remuneration, as yet.
Everyone does have a right to raise their born babies.
That right was taken from me when I was too young to understand so much.
I successfully with valuable support raised a very beautiful child.
I'm told by many including the man closest to me, I'm to be admired.
Everyone also has the right to housing: that is a roof over their heads in collectively rich Australia.
When do the gung ho property development and real estate shock treatments stop in NSW and Australia?
Who is regulating this?
Why aren't politicains doing anything about all this?
What gives NSW Housing the indecency to treat their tenants with such total disregard?
My home is in ill repair as they tell me "the repairs aren't urgent", yet they are.
The staff are generally the "bully ilk" with a few exceptions.
Australia needs a wake up call.
I'm wisened by all this, and also socially conscious and active. I have very potent social contacts this time.
However, it needs to go public more.
More need to tell the Australian public, who seem unable again to "show compassion", at least those who are doing this gung ho property development and real estate shock treatment, what is going on and where.
Those of us with social consciences and mindfulness will not allow ethical or physical thugs to get away with yet more "murders". Yes, having cement poured over your head and body is equivalent to trying to "murder someone". This is what they did to me. I went into severe shock yet survived (just as I survived the loss of my first born to forced adoptions.)
My child was in the most horrendous distress as a consequence. It affected my whole family adversely.
It was yet another version of unethical thuggery.
My daughter came to see my rented at a reasonable rent gutted unit owned by the Lowes, and found her mum unable to go to work because she couldn't hear for a time.
The jackhammers no less.
Because I was in "shock" .
The Tenancy Lawyers were not available for me so I had to stand up to these thugs alone at that time.
It wasn't the Lowes alone who did all this and files are in a barristers office as I write this.
The judge had a social conscience and humanity.
He said "one of the most flagrant breaches of quiet enjoyment I have ever seen".
These ethical and physical thugs really tried to completely destroy me. That's not possible yet they try it on as they lack all "mindfulness". They are "thugs", "Bullies" the adult version.
These people have to start finding their compassion.
They keep doing it over and over again.
Trying to destroy famuilies and society.
No doubt with some people they succeed, at a loss in the longterm. Yet they wont get this at all I suppose. They are without humanity.
Only "profits above people" matter to these odvious "thugs".
They are not aware of themselves and their own behavior or if they are aware they have lost a cog or too.
I agree with everyone whose said compassion and empathy have to come bcak into the Australian psyche.
As does trust.
That trust can't happen with NSW Housing unless and until they stop doing unethical things or negligent things over and over again.
This is also true with private landlordsand other Real Estate and property developers.
I'm sure this is not simply happening in NSW.
It's time to start having a political say for the inclusion not exclusion of our populace, and for diversity to be embraced rather than "gutted".
When do these kinds of businesses get it right and own up to some civic responsibility.
They've shown themselves to be unable to even understand the concept of this to date, to their downfall, in time.
These unethical thugs are well and trully exposed, and will continue to be until they wisen up and start doing the right things by the society they live in.
Thanks Indy
What's an apology compared with these terrible lives?
I know all about forced adoptions because my mother was one of these.
I found out at the reunion just how much hardship she's had to put up with.
She's really a very loving person.
She's had to also live in public housing and these rat temples need a complete overhaul.
The public lanlords are bullies.
Regarding the Lowe family what Anon has wrote figures.
Unless it's Lowes store?
The lowe family and Westfield are man destoryers to be sure.
There needs to be an audit on that lot
They destroyed my fathers business at Bondi Junction. Along with so many others.
These are peoples lives and who wants a mall without any sunlight in our suburbs.
The new one in CBD who ticked that box we all know.
It's really creepy how they get development ticks over and above all the small to medium businesses.
Ptofits before people isn't ethical is correct.
There will be changes for all who try to destroy others get destoryed in the end.
How rge hell did you survive cement poured all over you?
Forced adoptions and how it affects a lot of the victims needs to be looked at further.
The stories are too inhumane and tragic.
What's an apolohy when you read some of these terrible comments about the lives of families made so hardship over and over again.
John
What they did to you anon is criminal, forced adoptions too
What Lowe family did this to you?
What Real Estate?
What Property Developer?
All clues appreciated.
It's tragic you had to lose a baby to forced adoptions then have to go through this living hell. What a hell it's been for you. I'm an adoptee and work in law.
Anybody who survives that needs accolades. Public Housing is renowned for being "slack" and thanks to a lot of thinking people they are going to be tranparent time.
At the moment they care only about their own "government" jobs.
They don't show any "care" or "responsible action" with their paying tenants.
The public think it's all cheap rent. That's a laugh.
When you see the neighbours these civil public tenants have to live with you get the real picture.
It's more than property that's the pits here.
One friend lives in public housing he's always having some invasion of his privacy or witnessing some kind of crime. He phones the police and then me.
The bullies need therapy rather than you.
If it's the Westfield Lowe or Cosmopolitan Lowe they're well known for their "thuggery" as you call it.
Don't worry a lot of Australians have it out for these ruthless tyrants.
They've got away with "murder" as you rightly put it by their destructive conduct over and over again.
If it's another Lowe then that's something else.
I'd be interested in what Lowes you are writing about.
What they did to you anon is criminal. Forced adoptions appear to be criminal also.
Thanks
G.N.
Unconscionable real state agents, property developers, builders
The woman who wrote about the gutting of her neighbouring units experienced an earthquake whilst doing her dailly duties. She's my friend as her family and mine grew up together in Paddington.
She worked at Rose Bay pharmacy and Maroubra pharmacy.
That she was a casual employer made it difficult to sustain even that amount of work whilst the builders did their horrendous annihilation of the private rental paying tenants.
I found out one male tenant went totally round the bend.
That's unconscionable!
He was then the father of a 4 year old child.
I hope he's recovered by this time yet who knows.
The woman found much of her ancestral heirlooms broken when the earthquake tremmers occured.
Smashed when she came home from a shift at one of the pharmacies she worked at.
What the hell were they doing messing with decent people.
There's a line drawn where profits over people becomes something far more serious, something ugly becyond words.
Everybody should be concorned about these sharks.
I've written to two poloticians about this specifically what database do the Realty and property developers get private home phone numbers from???
We expect them to do their usual letter box smash and grabs but phoning people at home, that's evil.
The man or woman should find out whose ringing and tell them they'll go to Fair Trade.
They should also know they can simply hang up on anybody who calls.
These unsolicited calls are far too rampant.
The other suggestion is for that neighbour to get a tap on his or her line, re. nuisance calls.
Sharks are everywhere, they and politicians don't seem to have collective compassion in this area.
I know of two who do, two only.
What's this got to do with forced adoptions. a whole lot.
From one trauma you can become traumatised again.
There is the accumulation which needs very supportive healthy compassionate help through the hardships of this kind of unconscionable behavior on the part of Real Estate agents, Property Developers and their builders.
Shame on that lot.
A whole new industry shares phone numbers - unreal and unethical
I beg to differ.
Try not to let the memories get blurred together.
Keep the traumas separate.
These are all different traumas here and should be dealt with separately.
Forced adoptions affected my family.
I haven't had any dealings with Housing NSW and don't want to.
With the nuisance calls from the Real Estates and/or property developers it's that there's a whole new industry that shares phone numbers.
They collect and have databases of all sorts of numbers. Unreal and unethical, I'd say so. Ask a lawyer or two.
It could have been random.
It could also have been Run Realty as they were in on a fraudulant deal with Housing NSW a time ago.
They're gung ho as you call it and want anything and everything as in are definitely after money above the welbeing of tenants or buyers.
Tilly
My adopted sister won't let her mum contact her
It's just an apology. Now from the X PM. \Apologies don't heal victims of crimes such as forced adoptions. What's an apology except recognition of the unconscionable bad things done to mums and their babies. I'm all for a Royal Commission into this. If Indy is any example of many of these mothers and babies they've suffered far too much hardship. They need specialist counsel or help plus financial if they haven't already got into this. My sister was adopted. She's vetoed so her mum can't contact her. I want to meet the mother and feel my sister should too. Thankyou
Mother and son took reunion very slowly over as long time
I'm the son of one of the mothers who lost tragically to forced adoptions.
I have successfully maintained some contact. I'm lucky in that we did this reunion thing over a long period of time. We took it very slowly.
Meeting a stranger whose your biological parent takes time to assimilate and understand what one can.
With the terrible things all of these mothers especially went through I believe we need more respect for mothers.
The commercialisation of mothers and babies. It's an ethical dilemna.
I abhor anyone who forces anyone else to suffer.
With the property developers and real estate in Canberra and NSW, where I know best about these things.
Something has to be done.
(Censored out) there are many if not most ruthless malicious to the extreme property businesses.
Westfield has always amused me as well as made me angry.
They have all these malls scattered all over the world with "unfriendly to families" written all over them. I can't stand the chaos of these places.
Their idea of wealth at any cost is shameful.
With the churchs and the Lowys where is the needed remorse.
You're talking about compassion a lot here.
It's true.
We can't grow without this.
Anon/Son/Father/Husband/Doctor
The apology is a beginning we hope
With forced adoptions we have to concede these were unconscionable.
By any decades standards, unless we go back to primitive times.
The Barangaroo Development is what a lot of us call Greed.
We don't need two casinos in one city.
(Passage censored out - Editor)
We're not anti-wealth, as we have plenty.
We're anti greed and callous disregard for the value of human life: mothers. fathers childrens, all lives.
Compassion and empathy.
It's a given we need more of these. I see it in my immediate sphere.
It's growing.
Best of good fortune from here on to the victims of forced adoptions.
We know two of you from a long time ago now. Very young girls, now adults with lots of merits.
Good on you. The Apology is a beginning we hope.
F.T.L..
You have recognition of wrongs done now with this apology
The width and length of the forced adoptions makes me very mindful of the suffering.
Separating mothers from their babies there's a lot of research on this.
It's not ethical.
If the policies in the States and Territories upheld these forced adoptions they should be compensating their targets.
The commonwealth did however have their own policy that allowed forced adoptions to happen as I understand this.
We all can say Sorry when we do wrongs.
It's changing the policies and pracrtices.
The values and attitudes that matters.
There's talk of casinos in Sydney at Barangaroo.
With what I've seen with addictions like gambling I think James Packer all who want this should be more mindful.
The repercussions of gambling addictions are socially unaccepatble and cause a higher cost to society.
(Passage censored out) They go too far. I found what they did to that woman here outrageous.
They need to make peace with this woman. How do you go that far pouring cement over a mother in the shower. How do you gut a rented unit when people are living in them.
The jackhammers do make earth tremors. Friends of mine are builders.
They step over that line of humanity and endlessly seek profits over and above people.
We can't all be the same.
We have these kinds of mindless people.
For whatever reason they can't find compassion or empathy.
Their form of gambling is as destructive as casinos.
I'm working in an area of ACT which is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
This may be helpful to the targets of forced adoptions.
You have recognition of wrongs done now with this apology.
We all have to work together.
Over my life span of 40 years I've seen bullies fall
The time comes when the bullies fall on their swords.
Whether you're talking about the Lowys, Packers or corporations who exploit as in forced adoptions.
Bullies who cause suffering to so many do end up losing out.
It's not kharma as good people have bad things happen to them.
It's more natural justice.
Over my life span of 40 years I've seen bullies fall.
Not at the times of their crimes/bullying antics that were unconscionable.
With forced adoptions the bullies will all end up the worst off for treating mothers/fathers/babies with such complete disdain and torture.
I commend those who've transcended all this.
Healing to you all.
We all know either a mum, a dad or an adoptee from this horrific past.
Greg
Psychology
Low self-esteem and this wanting it all and more go together
The trouble is Greed.
Greed has almost becme normalized.
You can have it all and more is the motto of many.
The women's magazines would have advertised about babies and adoptions when forced adoptions went on.
Now we see advertisements for malls and goods and services that are costly for all yet there are those who aspire to also have.
Have a few babies that don't come from your womb, have a handbag made by "slaves" bought at a mall that costs a fortune.
Low self-esteem and this wanting it all and more go together.
Healthy people don't want what is others.
They don't cause suffering to others never.
Forced adoptions is very tragic.
I know from a woman who is not into greed and who works harder than anybody I know to do good for others.
Marion
Forced adoptions is like sexual abuse
The apology was said wrong.
The now gone PM tried to plug her own party Labor instead of staying on the page with forced adoptions.
My brother and I are adopted so we noticed this.
It's tragic reading about the mums stories.
We've read some of the dads. No less tragic.
Forced adoptions is like sexual abuse, they're both ethically wrong and caused by BULLIES.
They're both exploiting vulnerable. They're both being examined by directors, writers, reseerchers and others.
The news media should educate Australians about adult bullies. They too often make out it's only children who bully.
We all know that's a lie.
These characters who lack character and empathy keep harming what could be a really good democracy Australia.
With Real Estate I think everybody hates this lot.
It's embarassing how extreme the rents have got and what I've read about here with that lady.
I don't know about public housing and think they should do right including proper renovations.
They pay rent and have to live amongst people a lot of us wouldn't be able to handle as neighbours.
Barangaroo was public land. It shouldn't have been sold to James Packer for a pittance.
Should have become public housing for all we see on the streets or doing it rough in other ways.
Fair Australia. We're not there. Compassion and empathy are lacking amongst those who have the most and could give a little to help the government coffers, to help those who need a hand up, not down.
Forced adoptions deserves more than an apology.
Barry & family
No articles on forced adoptions and their psychological impacts
Beyond Blue could be doing some good work with the victims of forced adoptions.
I don't see any articles about forced adoptions and the psychological impacts of same anywhere in any news or online.
This forced adoptions is really depressing.
There's too much sorry and not enough real support.
An apology was needed.
Look at the foster care of our indigenous peoples.
These are tragic.
However, with foster care at least the biological parents get to see their kids.
With forced adoptions the horror is the mothers and fathers were not allowed any information about their own born children.
Until, a law passed, under pressure of several very brave women, one of which was an artist whose suffered far too much trying to find resolution here.
Good luck to all.
I hope for my friend and all the victims
I'm unsure about foster care for our original peoples.
I've too much knowledge about the wrongs of NT intervention to go there.
With forced adoptions is an apology and some piecemeal counsel going to heal all the individual victims.
I don't know.
My closest friend is a victim of this.
She's trying so hard to put this all into perspective whilst her "grown baby" outright rejected her at reunion.
This is a very depressing trauma and more should be done to help the victims heal.
With hope for my friend and all the victims.
Jodi
Mothers' own very real worth needs resolving
To Jodi and all the mothers involved.
I've come to realise the mothers who lost so traumatically to forced adoptions became needy.
These needs were unmet and for many created ongoing problems with their self esteem.
The one need they don't have now, if I'm correct, is for their babies now grown to think they need their help.
All help should come from professionals in psychology and close family and friends.
We are all really needy in a way, yet for these mothers the initial needs were totally squashed and the outcome was a delayed understanding of their own very real worth.
This is what needs resolving I reckon.
Mothers tortured in the name of god - the nature of evil
I'm concerned about issues of affection for the adoptees.
There's a lot of evidence showing forced adoptions didn't allow any affection to be given the babies.
The mothers were tortured in the name of god.
In the name of god these churchs should start apologising and making this all right.
Forced adoptions reminds me of Sunshine and Oranges movie.
The more you understand what lenghts church's will go to to get money or mothers or babies the more you realise the nature of evil.
I've lost all faith in organised religion though never was good with it except for basic princples.
Nell
Churches still part of the adoption machine
certainly there's evil in organised religion.
certainly these survivors are now recognised as done wrong on a large scale.
What's uncertain is if the churchs will ever admit wrongs with this one.
They are even today part of the adoption machine.
An apology is not good enough.
Harry
(and the many Potters)