Australia PM Gillard sorry for 'shameful' forced adoptions

[cronus]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-21872919

Australia PM Gillard sorry for 'shameful' forced adoptions

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has issued an apology to people affected by Australia's forced adoption policy between the 1950s and 1970s.

Tens of thousands of babies of unmarried, mostly teenage mothers, were thought to have been taken by the state and given to childless married couples.

Many women said they were coerced into signing away their children.

Speaking in front of hundreds of the victims, Ms Gillard said the "shameful" policy had created "a legacy of pain".

"Today, this Parliament, on behalf of the Australian people, takes responsibility and apologises for the policies and practices that forced the separation of mothers from their babies which created a lifelong legacy of pain and suffering," she said at Parliament House in the capital Canberra.

"We deplore the shameful practices that denied you, the mothers, your fundamental rights and responsibilities to love and care for your children."

(continued)

[JimC]

The zeitgeist moves on...

[pErvinalia]

No one cares about significant shit like that here. We are more interested in a confected leadership crisis. Another psuedo-challenge today, another vanquished foe of the fire-haired Welsh sheila! I can't help thinking we are going to have to go Venezuela's way here and ban News Ltd as a media organisation. They are going to go full tilt after her between now and the election.

[Rum]

This story was on Today (BBC Radio 4) this morning. They interviewed a woman whose baby was taken from her when she was 17 and living with the father (they are still married), and then forced under threat of long term detention to release the baby for adoption. The Radio 4 news people - hard and professional a lot one would be hard pressed to meet - ended the interview in obvious stunned silence.

This seems to have happened to lots of young women in the mid to late 60s. Dreadful story.

The woman concerned tracked down her son when he was 25 and they now have a good relationship.

[JimC]

It was bloody awful, but it's inconceivable that it could happen now, which is what I meant by the zeitgeist moving on...

[pErvinalia]

It is, Jim, but don't forget about the Northern Territory intervention. That zeitgeist hasn't moved on that far.