NSW: Govt should apologise for past adoption practices: report

AAP General News (Australia)
12-08-2000
NSW: Govt should apologise for past adoption practices: report

By Ian Jessup

SYDNEY, Dec 8 AAP - The New South Wales government had watered down a report into past
adoption practices, many of which were unethical and illegal, a support group said today.

Diane Wellfare, chair of Origins, said "Releasing the Past" was a valuable document
and would help remove the stigma associated with adoption.

But she said incidents of poor treatment, referred to as occasional, were in fact routine.

The report quoted some women whose experience of the adoption process was kind and
caring, but overall it paints a bleak picture.

Mothers were either banned from seeing their baby or forced into signing adoption consent
forms before seeing them and they were often not allowed to breastfeed their babies.

"It was railroading at best, and kidnapping at worst," Ms Wellfare told AAP.

"All the social workers were interested in was providing babies for infertile couples
at any cost because there was such a demand.

"In the 1960s Australia was an affluent country, it wasn't third world, but the Christian
morality ruled and another woman's infertility should not have been my problem.

"We spent seven years gathering their own documents to hang them with and we're not
going to allow this government to get away with it."

Jan Burswood, chair of the NSW Upper House Social Issues Committee which commissioned
the inquiry and compiled the report, said a formal apology was one of 20 recommendations
of the report.

"The NSW government should issue a statement saying past practices were misguided,
sometimes unethical and unlawful, and may have caused lasting damage for many families,"

she said today.

Family Court judge Richard Chisholm sat in on one day of hearings and was scathing
of the past practices, Ms Wellfare said.

A spokesman for Community Services Minister Faye Lo Po' said she would read the report
over the weekend.

Ms Wellfare said a formal apology would help many children understand they weren't
willingly given up and that in many cases their mothers weren't even allowed to see them.

The prevailing social attitude was that a young woman who became pregnant was sinful,
easy or weak.

A few of the fathers were charged with carnal knowledge, while the maternity homes
housing the young mothers were punitive and authoritarian.

In hospital, they were treated like second-class citizens and immediately after birth
the mother had a pillow or similar object placed in front of her so she could not see
the baby she was about to give up.

Adoptions peaked in NSW at 4,564 in 1972.

Within a year, the figures were down to 2,685 due to the Whitlam government's introduction
of the single mother's pension, Ms Wellfare said.

Last year there were just 178 adoptions in NSW.

Ms Wellfare also called on the government to follow Victoria and abolish the contact
veto which allows either parent of child to refuse contact.

"The contact veto simply perpetuates the emotional abuse and heartache," she said.

"People need proper counselling to let go of the fear, but where are we going to get
that counselling, it all comes from within at the moment."

The report recommended the Department of Community Services (DOCS) provide funding
to develop a post-adoption resource kit.

It was also recommended DOCS provide funding for a major independent research project
in the reunion process.

Compensation appears out of the question as the Limitation Act 1969 in NSW places a
three-year restriction on the time available to commence legal proceedings for personal
injury.

AAP ij/sb/gmw

KEYWORD: ADOPTION NIGHTLEAD

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