Child Protection Minister Sabine Winton said the WA Government was committed to ensuring people with lived experience of forced adoption had a key role in driving change. Photo: Screenshot.
The Western Australian Government has accepted the majority of recommendations from its inquiry into past forced adoptions, but advocates worry its work on a redress scheme may not come to fruition.
‘Forced adoption’ is an umbrella term referring to actions that separated babies and unmarried mothers against their wills for the purposes of adoption. In WA, this era intersected with policies that led to the Stolen Generations, and also involved ‘Forgotten Australians’ who were raised in state care, private institutions or both.
Of the 39 recommendations made for this investigation into the systemic forced adoption practices used by the State Government last century, a key one was to compensate victim-survivors.
Child Protection Minister Sabine Winton claims that work is currently being undertaken to “comprehensively consider a redress scheme”. However adoptee advocate Jennifer McRae told The West Australian this response was “very vague, non-committal language so we have no security around redress”.
“People have poured their hearts out, lives have been ruined,” she said. “They could have committed to it and worked out the detail later.”
WA Parliament was the first in Australia to apologise for past forced adoption in 2010. However the inquiry’s report claims “little action flowed” from it or the recommendations that came out of the Federal Senate inquiry in 2012.
The inquiry began in February 2022, after being successfully introduced as a petition to the Legislative Council in the November prior – sponsored by Ms McRae and bearing 318 signatures.
Looking at the response in whole, the advocate said the government’s response wasn’t bold or brave enough.
“They keep saying they’ve listened to us but if they had listened they would have committed to redress,” said Ms McRae.
The government’s response noted that it will be giving further consideration to 14 recommendations, among which is the establishment of a redress scheme.
A driving force behind the inquiry was the Association Representing Mothers Separated from their Children by Adoption Inc (ARMS), a Western Australian-based support group for women who have had a child removed by adoption. Photo: ARMS WA.
Aside from the redress scheme, the government has committed to calls for the introduction of integrated birth certificates, public awareness campaigns, service design improvements, improved access to information and mental health support, along with the repeal of contact and mediation licences.
The state announced it would also immediately establish a forced adoption reference group to guide implementation of the legislation.
Minister Winton acknowledged the “extraordinary courage and determination of the many mothers, fathers, adopted people, their families and support services who provided submissions and evidence to the inquiry”.
“On 19 October 2010, the Parliament of Western Australia was the first in Australia to apologise for the removal of children from unmarried mothers,” she said.
“However, as this inquiry has demonstrated, we have much more work to do.”
