Forgotten Australians
Apology to Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants, 16 November 2009
Monday 16 November 2009 will be remembered as a day of sadness and also of pride and celebration as the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologized to Forgotten Australians and child migrants in the Great Hall of Parliament House Canberra. His apology was greeted with applause and cries of “thank-you”. He was followed by the Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull adding the voice of the Opposition to the apology. Mr Turnbull’s sincerity received great acknowledgement. An audience of around 1,000, mainly made up of Forgotten Australians and child migrants and their many supporters heard the speeches in person. Thousands of others watched the proceedings on the ABC at functions held in capital cities by State and Territory Governments, and by a number of community service organizations throughout the country. After these speeches, the formal motion of apology was put to both Houses of Parliament, where further heartfelt words were delivered by a number of MPs and Senators of the Federal Parliament.
Mr Rudd commenced his speech by saying, “We come together today to deal with an ugly chapter in our nation’s history. And we come together today to offer our nation’s apology. To say to you, the Forgotten Australians, and those who were sent to our shores as children without your consent, that we are sorry.”
He continued with a long and disturbing list of the abuses that children in out of home care and in institutions were subjected to:
“Sorry – that as children you were taken from your families and placed in institutions where so often you were abused.
”Sorry – for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation and the cold absence of love, of tenderness, of care.
”Sorry – for the tragedy, the absolute tragedy, of childhoods lost – childhoods spent instead in austere and authoritarian places, where names were replaced by numbers, spontaneous play by regimented routine, the joy of learning by the repetitive drudgery of menial work.
“Sorry – for all these injustices to you, as children, who were placed in our care.”
The Prime Minister made several announcements in relation to the Federal Government’s proposed future assistance to Forgotten Australians. The main points were that careleavers would be identified as a special-needs group for aged case purposes, so that providers can offer care that is more responsive, and also offer counselling and support services.
He went on to say that the Government would establish a “Find and Connect Service” to provide Australia-wide coordinated family tracing and support services for care leavers to locate personal and family history files and the reunite with members of their families. The service will provide a national database that will collate and index existing state identified records into a national searchable data base, accessible to state and other care leaver services and also directly to care leavers themselves.
Towards the end of his speech, Mr Rudd expressed the hope that “today, and from this day forward, you will be called the ‘Remembered Australians’.”
The morning ended with a lunch on the lawns outside Parliament House where, in 36 deg. heat, the atmosphere was one of quiet happiness at voices finally heard, believed and acknowledged.
It must have been a day of enormous pride to those many individuals who started to bring their voices together almost 10 years ago, to push for the Senate enquiry into children abused in institutional care. The apology is such a validation of their continued strong advocacy and tenaciousness and of their extraordinary individual and collective stories.
National Apology to Forgotten Australians
The Australian Government has announced that it will issue a national apology to Forgotten Australians. In order to have a say on what this Apology should sound like, the Department of Department of Famililes, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) has prepared a questionnaire. Here is the link:
Please take the time to look at the questions and send it back to the addresses provided if you want to have a say on this important issue.
The Sector Working Group
In 2004, the Senate Community Affairs Committee released its report ‘Forgotten Australians’ outlining the issues that were presented to the Committee during its national inquiry into children in institutional care. The report contained 39 recommendations to Government and non-Government organisations that provided institutional care in the past to address the issues of care leavers. Following the release of this report the Centre convened a meeting of CEOs and senior managers from its membership to identify ways in which the sector could implement some of the recommendations made by the Senate Committee.
A Sector Working Group, auspiced by the Centre was formed with representatives from community service organisations who provided institutional care in the past, care leavers (through VANISH and CLAN), Department of Human Services and the Centre. This Working Group has been in operation for over two years and serves as a forum for research and advocacy and consultation with care leavers in Victoria. The following are some of the projects and activities undertaken by the Working Group to date:
® With the support of funding from The Collie Trust, a research project was established in 2006, to gather evidence about the life experiences of care leavers. The project was established because there were no known official data sources with information about care leavers that would support an advocacy strategy. Data gathered from a survey of 77 Victoria -based care leavers has been compiled into a report "It is not too late to Care". The report highlights the key findings from our data analysis, and identifies key policy priorities for ongoing advocacy with the Victorian and Federal Governments. (Please visit our publications page to find out how you can obtain a copy of this report)
® During early 2006, the Centre developed a draft apology which member organisations could adapt to suit the needs of their individual organisations in issuing apologies to their constituents. This apology was developed in consultation with the Sector Working Group. The Victorian Premier issued an apology to Forgotten Australians at the Parliament during August 2006, and announced funding over four years to VANISH and CLAN for providing support to care leavers. The Centre also issued an apology to Forgotten Australians around this time.
Please click here to access the Centre's apology to Forgotten Australians
® The Centre wrote to the Victorian Premier in November 2006 outlining the work being undertaken by the Sector Working Group and urging the Government to act on the recommendations of the Senate’s report.
® The Centre convened two forums during 2005 and 2006 bringing together a large group of representatives from community service organisations, care leavers and policy makers to showcase work that is currently underway within organisations in implementing the recommendations of the Senate Committee. Work showcased included the setting up of heritage and information and support services for care leavers including re-unions etc. These forums have encouraged the sharing of ideas between organisations, and have been well attended.
® The Centre recently hosted a practitioners’ forum in collaboration with the Corporate Integrity Information and Resources Unit at the Department of Human Services, focusing on records management and presented the perspectives of and issues faced by the various players in the records access and management process. This forum is intended to encouraging organisations to further explore options for setting up, or develop existing information and records access services for former clients and those who are in the care system today. Based on an assessment of members’ feedback about this forum, it is likely to be convened at least another time during this year to facilitate a sharing of experiences.
® A sub-group of the Sector Working Group is collaborating with the Department of Human Services to set up an appropriate memorial for care leavers in Victoria. This group is also working on finalising the directory of services in Victoria to assist care leavers.
Development of a care leaver service in Victoria
The Victorian Government committed $7.1 million over four years to set up and provide a new service for people who grew up in care. The Department of Human Services has consulted widely with individual careleavers and their support groups to set up this service and is assisted by a Reference Group comprising representatives from key stakeholder groups including the Centre.
(Please click here for a copy of the draft discussion paper from DHS)