Page 3075 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2012
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of all those years of grief poured out on the endless pages of overwhelming loss and sadness; I cannot bear to think what actually enduring it must have been like.
Knowing that those submissions are just a fraction of what happened right across Australia demonstrates just how important today’s apology really is. I am sure that to those for whom this apology means most this is a day of very mixed emotions. There is the profound sadness and grief that few issues could provoke as intensely, and I hope there are also some feelings of relief and justice that the community is finally recognising what happened and apologising for it.
For all the terrible things that were done, for all the hurt and all the anguish over such a long period of time, for the empty space where there should have been a life to share, today is a day when we finally say sorry—sorry to the mothers who had their babies taken from them; sorry to their children, who did not have their mother’s care; sorry to the fathers, siblings, grandparents and other family members who did not have a member of their family to share all life’s experiences with, all the highs and lows that we all take for granted, that were taken away by a cruel and misguided practice for which there was no justification and no excuse. I sincerely hope that today does bring some comfort and some redress for what was done to you.
Today we recognise this group of people in our community who had an enormous wrong perpetrated against them by governments and institutions that were supposed to protect them. What was done was not just wrong, immoral and reprehensible; it was illegal—a profound breach of human rights and of basic human decency. Those who were entrusted by the community to do the right thing and to look after those in need simply failed. Instead of providing additional support and assistance, they denied these women what was most dear to them.
What happened has often been described as brutal, and I have no doubt that for many young mothers affected even that description does not do it justice. What was done was not just misguided. These actions were not just illegal, immoral and wrong; as I said, they were inexcusable. What was done was never in the best interests of the child or the mother.
As the South Australian Premier said during the South Australian apology, this was a basic failure of human conduct, a failure to ask the very simple question: how would I feel if this were done to me? To deny a child the knowledge of their heritage and identity—in some cases not even to put their parents’ and particularly their father’s names on their birth certificates—and to tell mothers that their babies had died or to tell children that they were unwanted were all horrific.
For those failures and for everything they led to, we are sorry. For the lies and deception, for the myths that were perpetuated to create a stigma that should never have existed, we are sorry. As our community’s representatives, members of this place have a responsibility to recognise what happened and apologise for it. On behalf of all Canberrans, today is a day where as a community we can stand up and say we are very sorry and promise never to let anything like this happen again.
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