19 July 2012

We're apologising for forced adoptions

| johnboy
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This morning the Greens got in early calling for a formal apology “to those affected by forced adoption practices from the ACT Government”.

“The mothers, their children and the families who were adversely affected by these past adoption practices have suffered long-term anguish over what was a disgraceful policy of immediate removal of babies following birth, and I hope this apology goes some way to healing the immense hurt caused.

“In 2010 a Greens motion was passed in the Assembly that called on the ACT Government to apologise on behalf of the ACT Legislative Assembly and the community to those ACT residents who have been affected by the forcible removal practices.

And voila, Joy Burch has just announced in an emailed statement that the apology will be made:

The ACT Government will make a statement of apology in the Legislative Assembly during the August sitting to the victims of forced adoptions.

This has been planned since the Australian Parliament’s Senate Inquiry on the Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices recommended in February that Commonwealth and State and Territory Governments make a statement of apology to parents whose children were forcibly removed and to the children who were separated from their parents.

Furthermore, as early as October 2010 I committed in the Legislative Assembly that the ACT Government would make a statement of apology to the victims of forced adoptions. The ACT Government believed it was useful to wait until the Senate Inquiry had made its recommendations to ensure a nationally consistent approach, and since the Committee’s report we have been working towards making this statement during the August sittings.

While any forced adoptions that occurred in the ACT pre-dated self-government, and thus did not occur under the jurisdiction of an ACT government, the ACT Labor Government believes it is important to acknowledge the impact these policy decisions had, irrespective of which government was responsible.

Just as the ACT was the first jurisdiction to issue a statement of apology to the Stolen Generation in 1997, at a time when the Howard Liberal Government refused to, the ACT Labor Government is determined not to allow this Assembly term end without acknowledging the victims of forced adoptions.

I welcomed Commonwealth Attorney-General Nicola Roxon’s announcement in June 2012 that the Federal Government would be making a formal apology – like those issued to the indigenous Stolen Generations and former child migrants known as the Forgotten Australians – to the victims of forced adoptions.

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vet111 said :

jacgil said :

This is for those of you who make degrading and derogatory comments about the people involved in this blight on Australian history…

If you had the ability and nous to read the senate report, you would not sound so pathetic…I have had my fill of the uneducated comments that make you look so stupid…uncaring and downright rude…

Do you ever think how the Morecombe’s will live the rest of their lives? Having had their child stolen from them and subjected to God knows what…well, as a mother of forced adoption, I didn’t have 8 years of wondering if my child was alive and okay, I’ve had a lifetime of it…it’s easy for you to jump on the bandwagon of insulting and deriding those who have suffered this travesty of justice…but if you heard just one of the hundreds of thousands of stories from those affected by this, you would feel quite ashamed by your hurtful and immature comments…grow up…don’t comment on something as serious as this with petty comments that hurt and insult those who have endured this nightmare their whole life…compassion is a virtue…

At the risk of being remotely associated with HenryBG, I’m going to have to pull you up on this. Drawing parallels between the Morcombe’s situation and your own is downright offensive. You and your child have mechanisms to track each other down. The Morcombes have nothing except knowledge that something horrific happened to their boy, and he is not coming back. Your situation is sad, I’m not denying that but please don’t equate this to such a tragic crime.

I think perhaps the point that Jacgil was trying to make is that unlike people like the Morecombes who very sadly know that their son is dead many women who lose children to adoption spend years wondering whether their child is alive or dead (and in some cases I know of relinquishing mothers who searched only to find that their child is dead – likewise, many adoptees search only to find that their mother or father is dead). And whilst relinquishing parents and adoptees have had the means to search (since 1991) for whatever reasons sometimes they come up against a contact veto which is an absolutely devastating thing to have to deal with.

Growling Ferret said :

Sometimes I wonder who would win in the troll olympics, Henry BG or Gooterz.

HenryBG would win hands down – not that that’s anything to be proud of.

jacgil said :

This is for those of you who make degrading and derogatory comments about the people involved in this blight on Australian history…

If you had the ability and nous to read the senate report, you would not sound so pathetic…I have had my fill of the uneducated comments that make you look so stupid…uncaring and downright rude…

Do you ever think how the Morecombe’s will live the rest of their lives? Having had their child stolen from them and subjected to God knows what…well, as a mother of forced adoption, I didn’t have 8 years of wondering if my child was alive and okay, I’ve had a lifetime of it…it’s easy for you to jump on the bandwagon of insulting and deriding those who have suffered this travesty of justice…but if you heard just one of the hundreds of thousands of stories from those affected by this, you would feel quite ashamed by your hurtful and immature comments…grow up…don’t comment on something as serious as this with petty comments that hurt and insult those who have endured this nightmare their whole life…compassion is a virtue…

At the risk of being remotely associated with HenryBG, I’m going to have to pull you up on this. Drawing parallels between the Morcombe’s situation and your own is downright offensive. You and your child have mechanisms to track each other down. The Morcombes have nothing except knowledge that something horrific happened to their boy, and he is not coming back. Your situation is sad, I’m not denying that but please don’t equate this to such a tragic crime.

Gungahlin Al8:02 am 23 Jul 12

HenryBG said :

kakosi said :

When I was at high school (late 70s – 80s) a classmate got pregnant and was coerced to give up her baby by the authorities.

I don’t however see how an apology would help my classmate – who had a mental breakdown after she returned to school. We heard she was institutionalised, we never saw her again.

I bet the baby grew up in a loving, caring, supportive and well-resourced family though.

The fact is that if the girl had a supportive family then “the authorities” wouldn’t have touched the baby. Leaving the baby with her when she had no support from her family would have been the worst thing to do.

Well there’s a sweeping assumption based on zero actual knowledge…

kakosi said :

When I was at high school (late 70s – 80s) a classmate got pregnant and was coerced to give up her baby by the authorities.

I don’t however see how an apology would help my classmate – who had a mental breakdown after she returned to school. We heard she was institutionalised, we never saw her again.

I bet the baby grew up in a loving, caring, supportive and well-resourced family though.

The fact is that if the girl had a supportive family then “the authorities” wouldn’t have touched the baby. Leaving the baby with her when she had no support from her family would have been the worst thing to do.

When I was at high school (late 70s – 80s) a classmate got pregnant and was coerced to give up her baby by the authorities.

I don’t however see how an apology would help my classmate – who had a mental breakdown after she returned to school. We heard she was institutionalised, we never saw her again.

Growling Ferret7:32 pm 22 Jul 12

Sometimes I wonder who would win in the troll olympics, Henry BG or Gooterz.

jacgil said :

This is for those of you who make degrading and derogatory comments about the people involved in this blight on Australian history…

If you had the ability and nous to read the senate report, you would not sound so pathetic…I have had my fill of the uneducated comments that make you look so stupid…uncaring and downright rude…

Do you ever think how the Morecombe’s will live the rest of their lives? Having had their child stolen from them and subjected to God knows what…well, as a mother of forced adoption, I didn’t have 8 years of wondering if my child was alive and okay, I’ve had a lifetime of it…it’s easy for you to jump on the bandwagon of insulting and deriding those who have suffered this travesty of justice…but if you heard just one of the hundreds of thousands of stories from those affected by this, you would feel quite ashamed by your hurtful and immature comments…grow up…don’t comment on something as serious as this with petty comments that hurt and insult those who have endured this nightmare their whole life…compassion is a virtue…

Hi Jacgil. Are you able to share the details of why your child was taken? I for one would be very interested to hear a real life case.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd6:11 pm 22 Jul 12

HenryBG said :

caf said :

HenryBG said :

caf said :

gooterz said :

I’m pretty dam sure that no one was forced by the government to hand over their child. (Wouldn’t the rest of the family complain) instead its more likely they were convinced to hand over their child so their child could have a better life (Australia couldnt afford the welfare.

It doesn’t matter how “dam sure” you are, your baseless speculation is dead wrong. Why don’t you have a read of the report of the Senate inquiry and inform yourself?

A friend of mine was adopted in the 1960s. He grew up in a nice household with loving parents one of whom was gainfully employed. He went on to Uni, got a degree and then got a well-paid job from which he just 2 weeks ago retired. He lives in a nice house in an inner suburb, has a nice wife, and two very well-brought-up children.

For all he knows, his original surname could have been “Massey”.
If the do-gooders had had their way, he’d have been brought up by junkies and trained from an early age to break into people’s homes and steal cars. If he had a wife, he would beat her for the crimkinal injuries compensation, and if he had children he would probably molest them.

This is why I won’t vote for politically-correct idiots.

That’s a nice fantasy story.

It turns out that here in the real world, most of those mothers didn’t turn out to be no-hopers.

Pull the other one.

The association between single mothers and dropkick criminal scumbag offspring isn’t something you can deny.

Source???

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd5:54 pm 22 Jul 12

Next thing you know we’ll be saying sorry to homosexuals for not letting them marry for the past 2000 years.

As we should!

My auntie had her baby taken off her. Pretty sure it messed her up badly.

jacgil said :

Do you ever think how the Morecombe’s will live the rest of their lives? Having had their child stolen from them and subjected to God knows what..

That really takes the cake – comparing the abduction, rape and murder of a teenager by a gang of paedophiles with the compassionate removal of babies from mothers who are mentally incompetent and/or junkies is in outrageously bad taste.

Jacgil readers will feel your pain and hopefully feel compassion.

One of the very saddest things about the adoption nightmare is that reunion between adopted and/or stolen children and their birth parents is so often unsuccessful. I vividly remember a conversation on Radio National where one of the ABC stars – Sandy McCutcheon, wished he hadn’t been reunited with his mother (I’m not sure whether he later adopted a softer tone). In fact he was scathing and classist about her, which was very confronting. I guess most adopted children fantasise about their parents of origin but, of course, have been brought up by “respectable home owner parents”, and then many might find that their birth parents are pretty rough, or druggies, or mentally ill etc. By the same token, I guess some relinquising mothers might conject about how much better their life would have been …. and they might be misguided about that. All in all, a sad business.

This is for those of you who make degrading and derogatory comments about the people involved in this blight on Australian history…

If you had the ability and nous to read the senate report, you would not sound so pathetic…I have had my fill of the uneducated comments that make you look so stupid…uncaring and downright rude…

Do you ever think how the Morecombe’s will live the rest of their lives? Having had their child stolen from them and subjected to God knows what…well, as a mother of forced adoption, I didn’t have 8 years of wondering if my child was alive and okay, I’ve had a lifetime of it…it’s easy for you to jump on the bandwagon of insulting and deriding those who have suffered this travesty of justice…but if you heard just one of the hundreds of thousands of stories from those affected by this, you would feel quite ashamed by your hurtful and immature comments…grow up…don’t comment on something as serious as this with petty comments that hurt and insult those who have endured this nightmare their whole life…compassion is a virtue…

There have been a number of forced adoptions since 1989, I have heard of many, and have several friends who were victims. I was informed recently that there were adoption agents approaching young women at several Brisbane hospitals recently, aiming to procure babies for adoption…the Law states that a mother has to seek them out at their shopfront, and forbids the solicitation of babies for adoption…as long as their is profit to be made, this will never stop…ask your adopters how much you cost them…they will go off their brain and deny money changed hands…ask them if they made a DONATION, now that’s another story…my uncle and aunt adopted a baby in 1948 and paid 100 pounds “donation”…babies were being sold by Drs for between 50 and 100 pound in 1948, this was not isolated…it was all too common…move forward a couple of decades, did it stop? No because while ever their are dollars available there will always be forced adoptions…look at their agenda…they tell the unmarried mother that she is unfit to raise her child compared to the well-to-do couple who want it…oh I just wish you knew what really happened…unless you ask your mother (as opposed to your Amother) what really happened…in my experience though, many mothers still believe it was THEIR decision to sign the papers, they can’t be any further from reality than they were back then…in my case I really believed it was my choice, until I realized that I actually wasn’t given an alternative to adoption…a choice needs to be made BETWEEN alternatives…if you weren’t offered any alternative, then it wasn’t a choice at all…I went to Crown St Women’s Hospital fully believing that we would be there for a few days and I would take my baby back home to live with my partner and me…they cut me off from him, my family, and anyone else who might influence me contrary to their desired outcome, and kept me there for 3 weeks after the birth, drugged to the eyeballs and harrassed mercilessly to sign the papers, even going so far as to say my release depended on it. The one statement that made me sign the papers was that I had 30 days to change my mind so stupid me thought if I signed them I’d get out then could fight for the return of my baby…what a joke…when I tried I was told that the baby had already been adopted…truth is the adoption was made legal when my daughter was 13 months old…don’t fall for the BS and don’t ever turn on your mother based on what other people say, you will find a shadow of who your real mother is when you find her…the damage is so deep that she herself doesn’t know what happened to her unless she’s received her records and had contact with Origins or similar…we were brainwashed…I kid you not…they drugged us and included thought reform in our daily rituals (aka routines)…this is one of the worst things that has every happened in Australia…there is so much to learn about how this happened…but at the end of the day, you must realize as a mother, that your own mother would not have parted with you willingly…

caf said :

HenryBG said :

caf said :

gooterz said :

I’m pretty dam sure that no one was forced by the government to hand over their child. (Wouldn’t the rest of the family complain) instead its more likely they were convinced to hand over their child so their child could have a better life (Australia couldnt afford the welfare.

It doesn’t matter how “dam sure” you are, your baseless speculation is dead wrong. Why don’t you have a read of the report of the Senate inquiry and inform yourself?

A friend of mine was adopted in the 1960s. He grew up in a nice household with loving parents one of whom was gainfully employed. He went on to Uni, got a degree and then got a well-paid job from which he just 2 weeks ago retired. He lives in a nice house in an inner suburb, has a nice wife, and two very well-brought-up children.

For all he knows, his original surname could have been “Massey”.
If the do-gooders had had their way, he’d have been brought up by junkies and trained from an early age to break into people’s homes and steal cars. If he had a wife, he would beat her for the crimkinal injuries compensation, and if he had children he would probably molest them.

This is why I won’t vote for politically-correct idiots.

That’s a nice fantasy story.

It turns out that here in the real world, most of those mothers didn’t turn out to be no-hopers.

Pull the other one.

The association between single mothers and dropkick criminal scumbag offspring isn’t something you can deny.

colourful sydney racing identity10:59 am 20 Jul 12

Baggy said :

caf said :

PM said :

Out of curiosity, how many forced adoptions have there been since 1989?

If you’d read beyond the headline, you’d have seen this:

While any forced adoptions that occurred in the ACT pre-dated self-government, and thus did not occur under the jurisdiction of an ACT government, the ACT Labor Government believes it is important to acknowledge the impact these policy decisions had, irrespective of which government was responsible.

Does this mean we’ll see the ACT Labor Government acknowledging and apologising for the impact that policy decisions such as the “Cultural Revolution” had? Or perhaps the policy decisions of Noriega?

When will they take responsibility for the areas they are given responsibility for – our little, insignificant town?

Settle down, we have not annexed Panama. Yet.

caf said :

PM said :

Out of curiosity, how many forced adoptions have there been since 1989?

If you’d read beyond the headline, you’d have seen this:

While any forced adoptions that occurred in the ACT pre-dated self-government, and thus did not occur under the jurisdiction of an ACT government, the ACT Labor Government believes it is important to acknowledge the impact these policy decisions had, irrespective of which government was responsible.

Does this mean we’ll see the ACT Labor Government acknowledging and apologising for the impact that policy decisions such as the “Cultural Revolution” had? Or perhaps the policy decisions of Noriega?

When will they take responsibility for the areas they are given responsibility for – our little, insignificant town?

HenryBG said :

caf said :

gooterz said :

I’m pretty dam sure that no one was forced by the government to hand over their child. (Wouldn’t the rest of the family complain) instead its more likely they were convinced to hand over their child so their child could have a better life (Australia couldnt afford the welfare.

It doesn’t matter how “dam sure” you are, your baseless speculation is dead wrong. Why don’t you have a read of the report of the Senate inquiry and inform yourself?

A friend of mine was adopted in the 1960s. He grew up in a nice household with loving parents one of whom was gainfully employed. He went on to Uni, got a degree and then got a well-paid job from which he just 2 weeks ago retired. He lives in a nice house in an inner suburb, has a nice wife, and two very well-brought-up children.

For all he knows, his original surname could have been “Massey”.
If the do-gooders had had their way, he’d have been brought up by junkies and trained from an early age to break into people’s homes and steal cars. If he had a wife, he would beat her for the crimkinal injuries compensation, and if he had children he would probably molest them.

This is why I won’t vote for politically-correct idiots.

That’s a nice fantasy story.

It turns out that here in the real world, most of those mothers didn’t turn out to be no-hopers.

colourful sydney racing identity said :

HenryBG said :

If the do-gooders had had their way, he’d have been brought up by junkies and trained from an early age to break into people’s homes and steal cars. If he had a wife, he would beat her for the crimkinal injuries compensation, and if he had children he would probably molest them.
.

Or he might have grown up assaulting women with rocks and dodging jury duty…

The thing stalkers need to to do is to learn to let go…

Jethro said :

Will we apologise to the current generation of kids forced to live at home with violent junkies because DOCs believes the best place for a child is always at home?

+1

colourful sydney racing identity8:43 am 20 Jul 12

HenryBG said :

If the do-gooders had had their way, he’d have been brought up by junkies and trained from an early age to break into people’s homes and steal cars. If he had a wife, he would beat her for the crimkinal injuries compensation, and if he had children he would probably molest them.
.

Or he might have grown up assaulting women with rocks and dodging jury duty…

caf said :

gooterz said :

I’m pretty dam sure that no one was forced by the government to hand over their child. (Wouldn’t the rest of the family complain) instead its more likely they were convinced to hand over their child so their child could have a better life (Australia couldnt afford the welfare.

It doesn’t matter how “dam sure” you are, your baseless speculation is dead wrong. Why don’t you have a read of the report of the Senate inquiry and inform yourself?

A friend of mine was adopted in the 1960s. He grew up in a nice household with loving parents one of whom was gainfully employed. He went on to Uni, got a degree and then got a well-paid job from which he just 2 weeks ago retired. He lives in a nice house in an inner suburb, has a nice wife, and two very well-brought-up children.

For all he knows, his original surname could have been “Massey”.
If the do-gooders had had their way, he’d have been brought up by junkies and trained from an early age to break into people’s homes and steal cars. If he had a wife, he would beat her for the crimkinal injuries compensation, and if he had children he would probably molest them.

This is why I won’t vote for politically-correct idiots.

gooterz said :

I’m pretty dam sure that no one was forced by the government to hand over their child. (Wouldn’t the rest of the family complain) instead its more likely they were convinced to hand over their child so their child could have a better life (Australia couldnt afford the welfare.

It doesn’t matter how “dam sure” you are, your baseless speculation is dead wrong. Why don’t you have a read of the report of the Senate inquiry and inform yourself?

Will we apologise to the current generation of kids forced to live at home with violent junkies because DOCs believes the best place for a child is always at home?

PC gone stark raving mad.

Knew a couple of girls who gave up their babies in the 60’s. The kids were certainly far better off with caring adoptive parents than living with their mothers, unemployable if with children, and paid bugger all via social security.

That the ACT Gov has bought into this is a nonsense. Govco did not exist when this system was in place, and should butt out. They are not apologising on my behalf.

How_Canberran6:49 pm 19 Jul 12

Have we decided to surf the ‘sorry’ wave just because the South Australian Premier apologised for the same thing on Wednesday?

I support an apology to all the parents in developing countries who were forced to give their children up for adoption, only because they could not feed them – because those Canberra adoptive parents, who could have supported those kids in their own countries and their own cultures for a few dollars a week, chose to remove them instead. What’s the difference between overseas adoption from poor countries and the Stolen Generation?

EvanJames said :

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

What is the nature of these forced adoptions? Why were they forced?

I’m assuming it was single mothers, which was a very shocking thing right up until the 60s. They’d often be shipped off to another town to have their babies, and often the babies were taken away as soon as they were born and given to a “proper” couple.

Yeah they should have done what they do now.
Let the single mothers live on welfare and drop out of school and roam around the mall pushing a pram in trashy clothes.

I’m pretty dam sure that no one was forced by the government to hand over their child. (Wouldn’t the rest of the family complain) instead its more likely they were convinced to hand over their child so their child could have a better life (Australia couldnt afford the welfare.

Next thing you know we’ll be saying sorry to homosexuals for not letting them marry for the past 2000 years.

VYBerlinaV8_is_back said :

What is the nature of these forced adoptions? Why were they forced?

I’m assuming it was single mothers, which was a very shocking thing right up until the 60s. They’d often be shipped off to another town to have their babies, and often the babies were taken away as soon as they were born and given to a “proper” couple.

neanderthalsis said :

PM said :

Out of curiosity, how many forced adoptions have there been since 1989?

There has been quite a few forced adoptions of greens policy by labor in the last few years.

Gold. And accurate, too.

PM said :

Out of curiosity, how many forced adoptions have there been since 1989?

If you’d read beyond the headline, you’d have seen this:

While any forced adoptions that occurred in the ACT pre-dated self-government, and thus did not occur under the jurisdiction of an ACT government, the ACT Labor Government believes it is important to acknowledge the impact these policy decisions had, irrespective of which government was responsible.

Tetranitrate3:29 pm 19 Jul 12

neanderthalsis said :

PM said :

Out of curiosity, how many forced adoptions have there been since 1989?

There has been quite a few forced adoptions of greens policy by labor in the last few years.

badum tss.

CrocodileGandhi3:28 pm 19 Jul 12

neanderthalsis said :

PM said :

Out of curiosity, how many forced adoptions have there been since 1989?

There has been quite a few forced adoptions of greens policy by labor in the last few years.

HAHAHAHAHA! SATIRE!

VYBerlinaV8_is_back3:25 pm 19 Jul 12

What is the nature of these forced adoptions? Why were they forced?

PM said :

Out of curiosity, how many forced adoptions have there been since 1989?

None.

But you’re missing the point: this move will enable a couple of dozen ACT Govt. bureaucrats to pad out their CVs with yet more reams of PC gibberish describing all the wonderful inclusive and diverse and multicultural things they’ve done.

neanderthalsis3:22 pm 19 Jul 12

PM said :

Out of curiosity, how many forced adoptions have there been since 1989?

There has been quite a few forced adoptions of greens policy by labor in the last few years.

Out of curiosity, how many forced adoptions have there been since 1989?

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