Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you to the honourable member for Macarthur, who just delivered one of the best speeches I've heard in this place. I stand today to speak about the recognition of 10 years since the National Apology for Forced Adoptions was made. In preparing for this speech I thought there are many others who have come before me who have said it perhaps more eloquently than I can. I start, first of all—in chronological order, because I'm still a lawyer at the end of the day—by acknowledging former prime minister Gillard, who, in many ways, has not been given the recognition that was deserved to her for bringing about this national apology. So I start by quoting Ms Gillard, because her words 10 years ago still resonate so much today. Ms Gillard said:

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.

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.

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 former Prime Minister then said:

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.

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.

We apologise to the sons and daughters who grew up not knowing how much you were wanted and loved.

…   …   …

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.

I cannot imagine what the terror was like that a woman would have felt finding out she was pregnant in the 1950s or 1960s or 1970s, which was the period that I grew up in—the 1970s, not the 1950s. It should have been an occasion of immense joy. They were unwed, and the way that society at that stage dealt with unmarried mothers was to say, 'You are not fit to be a mother.' I am just so relieved that my generation has not had to deal with that stigma, and I'm very relieved that in my son's generation the girls whom they're friends with and whom they are growing up with also will not have to deal with that stigma and that trauma.

I've mentioned former prime minister Gillard. On the one-year anniversary of the apology, Prime Minister Tony Abbott had a couple of words to say as well. I will quote from former prime minister Abbott, who said:

I cannot imagine a grief greater than that of a parent and a child parted from each other. I cannot imagine an ache greater than the fear that 'mum didn't want me', especially, since it was not true. But hundreds of thousands of Australians have been adopted, often because their mothers had no real choice or were denied any choice, and that means that there are hundreds of thousands of mothers who hardly knew their children and hundreds of thousands of children who hardly knew their mothers.

It was one of the worst government policies ever in the history of our country. Thankfully, because of the apology, at least now, while we cannot right the wrongs of the past, we have come a lot of the way to obtaining forgiveness. So that the victims of these policies—the mothers, the fathers and also the children—can start to be able to continue with their lives, an apology is completely appropriate.

I also thank Minister Rishworth, the Minister for Social Services, for the speech that she gave today in our parliament on behalf of her government and on behalf of everybody in the federal parliament. I'll just pull out a few of the words that she said. First, she quoted our current Prime Minister, who had said:

… this is not ancient history, not some distant tale from the vanished past. The Australians affected are with us still …

She further quoted the Prime Minister, saying:

… we reflect on a culture that enabled and facilitated the practice of denying mothers even a single moment with the baby that they had brought into the world.

I think in that vein it's important to acknowledge that many of these mothers did not even know whether they had given birth to a son or a daughter. The baby was taken away and they did not even get to see that baby. As a mother, I cannot imagine what they went through.

The minister said some other things this morning in the parliament:

Ten years ago all sides of politics came together in agreement with the apology.

That was very important. It was the same today; it was very bipartisan. The minister also said:

Last night over a hundred mothers, adopted people, fathers, family members, advocates and support workers travelled to Canberra from all over the country to mark the occasion.

That's the occasion of the apology. The minister continued:

It was a night of reunion, reflection, mourning and connection.

Then she welcomed and acknowledged the many that we had in the gallery today. She also pointed out the fact that forced adoptions are a startling recent chapter in Australia's history and, as I've said, that is important to remember. This was not something that was occurring a hundred or 200 years ago. This was something that was still occurring during my childhood. That's probably the biggest takeaway for me.

A deep veil of silence is drawn across this shameful period in history. Unmarried pregnant women were made to feel shame because of this government practice of forced adoptions. The apology that was given 10 years ago in this place was only realised due to the ongoing advocacy and tremendous courage of people including many, as the minister said, who were there in the parliament today. Their courage to relive painful experiences over and over again to make sure that the impact were fully understood by the nation is very important.

Looking to the future, one of the biggest things that came out of the apology 10 years ago was that there was an inquiry, and there is now ongoing and established funding for forced adoption support services. The Australian government continues to provide around $1.8 million per annum for forced adoption support services, which comprise about seven organisations across Australia including services such as national helpline referrals, individual casework and support, assistance with family searching and record tracing, group activities, peer support and access to counselling. As a result of the apology of 10 years ago, there is support being provided to those victims, and that support has been bipartisan. I will always continue to support that ongoing service while I'm in this place.

It's an emotional issue for all of us, and all that I can say is: I thank again Prime Minister Gillard for giving the apology 10 years ago and I thank all of those who have spoken today on the occasion of the 10th commemoration of the apology.

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