NSW says sorry for forced adoptions

20 Sep 2012, 2:32 pm   -   Source: AAP
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has delivered a historic apology to victims of past forced adoptions. (AAP)

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell has delivered a historic apology to victims of past forced adoptions. (AAP)

Tears flowed as the NSW parliament publicly apologised for forced adoption practices which ruined thousands of lives.

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MPs wept along with scores of women in the public gallery as the NSW parliament passed an historic motion of apology to tens of thousands of people traumatised by forced adoptions.

The "widespread" policy of forced adoption, parliament heard, was sanctioned by governments, churches, hospitals, charities and bureaucrats.

But to the mostly young and single mothers involved, they were more like abductions or kidnappings.

In an echo of former prime minister Kevin Rudd's 2008 "sorry" to Aboriginal stolen generations, a day of pain, courage, healing and hope ended with a public apology for the estimated 150,000 Australian babies born between the 1950s and 1970s who were taken from their mothers.

As MPs stood to carry the motion with a minute's silence, several dabbed at their eyes with tissues. One MP crossed himself. Many of the estimated 300 people in the public galleries at the joint sitting had wept throughout half an hour of emotional speeches.

They heard stories of young mothers who were tied to beds while their babies were induced, who never saw their babies before they were taken away, who were drugged, sedated and given lactation suppressants to dry up their milk, who were told lies that their babies had died, only to discover years later they were alive.

Opposition Leader John Robertson said some women felt the term adoption was "too sanitised; it was more akin to abduction or kidnapping".

Following an emotional poem read by a country mother, Lyn, whose son was forcibly adopted, NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell said the parliament acknowledged the "terrible" wrongs that were done.

"And with profound sadness and remorse, we say to those living with ongoing grief and pain, we are sorry," he said.

As a parent, Mr O'Farrell found it almost impossible to comprehend the pain caused by such "dehumanising" treatment.

He apologised to mothers who were never given a choice about their children, to children who never knew how much they were wanted and loved, to fathers who were "carelessly written out" of their children's lives, and to the wider families of all those affected.

"All felt their basic humanity had been violated, trampled and ignored," he said.

Mr Robertson said: "Our system betrayed them and in some cases perpetrated crimes against them."

"This single, barbaric act - fraying the sacred bond between mother and child - changed lives, and in many cases it destroyed them.

"There can be no excuse, no justification," he said, adding: "An apology without recompense does not go far enough."

Family and Community Services Minister Pru Goward said the message from one traumatised mother was: "Let our last 20 years be years of peace and acceptance."

Ms Goward later said it was now up to the hospitals and charities involved in the forced adoptions to say sorry.

Shadow minister Barbara Perry said: "The law was used as a mechanism to legitimise theft."

The NSW apology follows similar acknowledgments in other states and is expected to be repeated around the country.

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