Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—Today the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, offered his nation’s apology to the 150,000 British children sent overseas as child migrants. It is estimated that between 6,000 and 7,500 of these children, some of them as young as three years old, came to Australia. Many were brought here without their parents’ consent. Many had been told that their parents had died. When they arrived here, many were placed in institutions and foster homes where they were cruelly neglected and abused. The Australian government welcomes the apology to the former British child migrants made by the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. We also welcome the announcement that Britain will establish a ₤6 million restoration fund to support family reunions.

All of us here remember 16 November last year when the Prime Minister of Australia apologised on behalf of our nation to the half a million forgotten Australians and the former child migrants. I also acknowledge the role of the member for Wentworth and particularly the role and contribution of the member for Swan. It was a day when we acknowledged the physical and emotional suffering that all of these people endured and the failure of those with power to protect those who were powerless. This apology was also a turning point for many people, allowing them to begin to heal. As one former child migrant said at the time, ‘I’ve been waiting for all my adulthood for someone to believe us and say sorry for what happened to us, and we thank the government for what they said today.’

To support healing, the government are also taking practical action, establishing the National Find and Connect Service to help former child migrants trace and find their lost families. We continue to support the Child Migrant Trust, which has already done so much to help child migrants reunite with their families. The government have also amended the Aged Care Principles to recognise forgotten Australians and former child migrants as a group with special needs in the allocation of aged-care places. And work has started on two key history projects to properly and permanently place the experiences of forgotten Australians and child migrants on the nation’s historical record.

We do thank very much everybody who has been involved in both the Australian apology and the British government’s apology, recognising this very, very significant moment and its potential to heal for those former child migrants who lost their country, their families and their childhood.

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing and Human Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—The coalition joins with the government in recognising and acknowledging the statement made by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in the House of Commons yesterday on behalf of the British people. Mr Brown said in part:

It was hoped that these children, who were aged between three and 14, would have the chance to forge a better life overseas. But the schemes were misguided. In too many cases vulnerable children suffered unrelenting hardship and their families left behind were devastated. They were mostly sent without the consent of their mother or father. They were cruelly lied to and told they were orphans—that their parents were dead when in fact they were still alive.

Some were separated from their brothers and sisters, never to see one another again. Names and birthdays were deliberately changed so that it would be impossible for families to reunite. Many parents did not know their children had been sent.

We welcome the statement made by Prime Minister Brown and we also welcome the family restoration fund that the British government has established. Sadly, it will come too late for many people but it is, if belated, a recognition of the pain and the turmoil suffered by so many—many of whom are now citizens of this country. I recall meeting many former child migrants a few years ago at a gathering of them in Fremantle in Western Australia with the now member for Swan, who cannot be here to make a statement this afternoon because he is attending a function on these matters back in Perth this afternoon. Their pain was palpable all those years later. Nothing can reverse this regrettable chapter in our history but this statement, like the ones that were delivered in the Australian parliament recently, is a measure of the compassion required from all of us.