Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I have been asked to speak on behalf of the Australian Greens and to offer our wholehearted, unreserved support for the apology the Prime Minister gave this morning. I thank Senator Milne in particular for letting me speak now. I also would like to say in advance: please forgive me if I stumble over a few words here.

It is not very often that you can get up in this place and know that this place has done such a wonderful job collectively together. To offer such a fulsome apology to those affected by the most appalling past practices and policies that affected so many mothers, fathers, children, who have now grown into adults, grandparents, siblings—it shows the best of this place; that we have been able to work together to support people so terribly affected by these practices.

Less than half an hour ago, I left the Great Hall where the apology was given. I know many of you would have been in there sharing the emotion of that moment. If you were not, you missed something; because it has made a real difference to the people who were in that place. I have met some of them many times before; others for the first time. People came up and said 'Thank you'. You could see such a difference in their faces, in their body language, in terms of what this apology has meant. This apology has meant so much. For many it is the start of their healing journey.

I will also now—and I will go into it later—acknowledge the commitment the government has made to concrete measures. Recommendation 6 of the Senate committee inquiry said if you are going to make an apology you have to put concrete measures in as well. Apology is part of the journey but concrete measures to help those who have been affected by these past policies and practices are so important. The government has done that and I thank them for that because the sorts of measures they are putting in place will also help so much those affected by forced adoptions.

When I tabled the report on behalf of the committee—and I want to also come back to the committee process in a minute—I quoted Charlotte Smith. I met her this morning in the Great Hall and I quote her again because to me it sums up what we are talking about. She said:

A mother whose child has been stolen does not only remember it in mind, she remembers with every fibre of her being.

Of the mothers and the fathers that I have met, you can tell that sums it up for them: every fibre of your being. Imagine never having held your newborn baby, never seeing it and, in some instances, never hearing it cry. This is what these mothers and fathers, but in particular the mothers, have lived with for every day of their lives and will continue to live for every day of their lives. Unfortunately, some people felt it so strongly that they are no longer with us. The Prime Minister acknowledged those people today and I do so as well.

These practices had permanent, ongoing impacts and are still having those impacts on people's lives. That has been acknowledged, and that is why we need these concrete measures. These practices happened, and that was what the mothers, fathers, siblings and grandparents wanted acknowledged. First off, we did not even acknowledge that and now we have. We have acknowledged it and we have apologised for it, and it is very important to have that acknowledgement. But the first step was to actually acknowledge that these things happened because all their lives some mothers thought that it did not happen, that they may have imagined it.

Our Senate committee heard the accounts—remember, I always use the words 'accounts' of mothers—and one mother told us that she thought she may have imagined this horrible episode, and it was not until she went back to the hospital that it came back to her. Another mother had blocked it out, and it was only when she saw another program on TV that it all came back—20 years later. Fathers have been left off birth certificates while wanting to acknowledge and take responsibility for their child. They were knowingly left off birth certificates, locked out of their children's lives. Mothers have never been able to hold their babies. They were drugged, had their breasts bound, had curtains put up in front of them, pillows put over their faces, and were physically restrained from seeing their child. They had their signatures forged on consent papers. They were lied to about what consent papers were for, never being told that they could actually change their minds, never being told what social security was available to them so that they could have kept their child. Mothers were sent interstate with no support, were put into homes and forced to work for no wages, were punished and made to kneel on the floor to scrub floors as a punishment. They were put on beds in labour with no support whatsoever.

You would think, if you did not know better, that perhaps I was making this up. But that is what some mothers were told: 'That didn't happen.' That is why it is so important that this acknowledgement is being made, because it did happen. These things did happen. Some of it was not technically illegal—it was unethical and immoral—but it did happen. Some of what happened was illegal; I am absolutely convinced from the evidence that it was illegal. But, overwhelmingly, we have now acknowledged what happened to the mothers and fathers and siblings.

I take a moment here to talk about both the adoptees and the siblings. Many adoptees have lived, as Senator Abetz highlighted, thinking that their parents did not want them, that they gave them away. They did not. That was another thing that mothers so strongly wanted their children—who are now adults—to know. They did not give them away; they did love them. Their children, their babies, were loved. I have had several mothers tell me—those who could chase their records—that when they eventually went to meet their child that in their minds they expected to see a baby. This baby was now up to 50 years old. Imagine that: wanting to see your child and until recently you could not get access to your records. Deliberately, you could not get access to your records. And for mothers who transferred interstate, it was even more difficult because they had to go through state and territory boundaries.

Many adoptees—not all of them, I am aware of that—grew up thinking that their parents did not want them and gave them away. That is not a good foundation for life, even when your adoptive family is very supportive. You will be aware that in the Senate report we had many accounts of where, unfortunately, children were put in families where they did not have a good home life and were abused. That adds to the pain of the mothers and fathers of those children, now adults.

This plays out then to their siblings. One person said to me during the inquiry, 'Now I understand why my mother was so protective of myself and my siblings, because my mother had had a child taken and that was never going to happen to her again.' It helped explain to them why their mother was so protective. It had an impact on grandparents, many of whom were also lied to and misled.

I vividly remember the evidence we received in my home state of Western Australia—this scarf is from the mothers in Western Australia: I promised I would wear it in the chamber. There was one there, a very young woman—and this was in the early eighties, so this was not confined to the 1940s, fifties, sixties and seventies; it happened in the eighties as well—her partner wanted to stand by her, she did not want to adopt out the baby and her parents wanted to help look after the baby. When her parents went to the nursery they were threatened with the police if they did not leave the premises. That child was adopted out.

To make matters worse, this young woman did not find out that her parents had been to the hospital and had tried to support her, and had tried to assure the authorities that they would help look after the baby. They thought the young woman had agreed to have the baby adopted out. It was not until years later that they both found out, because it was something that you did not talk about. It was not until years later that the mother and her parents found out what had gone on. These parents were tricked, coerced, drugged—people signing consent forms in a drugged state—and there were obviously false signatures because the name was spelt wrong on a consent form. All these things happened.

I am not supposed to bring props in; I am sorry, Mr President, but I did. This is the apology from the Prime Minister, and every person who was in the Great Hall today got one of these. For those mothers, fathers, adoptees and grandparents, this will be one of the most important pieces of paper of their lives. As I said earlier, it is not often in this place when we can all, as one, offer this sort of apology and when we can work together the way we have to ensure that this apology came about. I thank in particular the members of the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs. More often than not, we as a committee issue consensus reports. It is a pleasure to work with people across the chamber on that committee, because we usually get the pretty tough questions, and this was the toughest inquiry that we have done. There was never a dry eye in any of the hearings for this inquiry. We always had to have boxes of tissues there for ourselves, the witnesses and the members of the audiences. There were some mothers, fathers and adoptees who came along just to hear the evidence. For many people who gave their accounts to the inquiry, it was the first time they had spoken publically about what had happened to them. When you think about it, some of the women who shared their stories were in their 50s, 60s or older. For that long in their lives they had held onto their account. In some instances they had only very recently told their families. For those women and men who came along to share their accounts, I acknowledge, and encourage everybody to acknowledge, their bravery in sharing their accounts. It made such a difference for us to be able to hear the evidence that they gave the Senate inquiry. It makes me feel very proud and honoured to have been able to work on the committee and on this issue.

Many people came up today and said: 'Thank you. You did this and you did that.' No, the committee inquiry presented, on their behalf, the evidence. People have been working on this issue for decades. It is the culmination of their work that has achieved this apology, and I acknowledge their years of hard work. It is only recently that this has become fairly public. It has taken years to get this on the agenda, and it is on the agenda. We have the government's response, and I am going to read the response to each of the 20 recommendations. I know the government has gone a long way in the concrete recommendations and that is really good. Our job now is to make sure that they get delivered and make sure the recommendations are implemented, because this apology is one step on the healing journey. It has been my privilege to walk some way of this journey with those who have been affected by these horrible past policies and practices and to share that journey with members of this place who have worked so hard. I particularly acknowledge Senator Moore, Senator Brown, Senator Boyce, Senator McKenzie and Senator Adams, who all shared this journey as well.

On behalf of the Greens, I offer our profound, wholehearted support for this apology.