Today,
the Government of Australia will move the following motion of apology in
the Parliament of Australia.
We come together today to deal with an ugly chapter in our nation's
history.
And we
come together today to offer our nation's apology.
To say
to you, the Forgotten Australians, and those who were sent to our shores
as children without your consent, that we are sorry.
Sorry
- that as children you were taken from your families and placed in
institutions where so often you were abused.
Sorry
- for the physical suffering, the emotional starvation and the cold
absence of love, of tenderness, of care.
Sorry
- for the tragedy, the absolute tragedy, of childhoods lost,- childhoods
spent instead in austere and authoritarian places, where names were
replaced by numbers, spontaneous play by regimented routine, the joy of
learning by the repetitive drudgery of menial work.
Sorry
- for all these injustices to you, as children, who were placed in our
care.
As a
nation, we must now reflect on those who did not receive proper care.
We
look back with shame that many of you were left cold, hungry and alone and
with nowhere to hide and nobody to whom to turn.
We
look back with shame that so many of you were left cold, hungry and alone
and with nowhere to hide and with nobody, absolutely nobody, to whom to
turn.
We
look back with shame that many these little ones who were entrusted to
institutions and foster homes instead, were abused physically, humiliated
cruelly, violated sexually.
And we
look back with shame at how those with power were allowed to abuse those
who had none.
And
how then, as if this was not injury enough, you were left ill-prepared for
life outside - left to fend for yourselves; often unable to read or write;
to struggle alone with no friends and no family.
For
these failures to offer proper care to the powerless, the voiceless and
the most vulnerable, we say sorry.
We
reflect too today on the families who were ripped apart simply because
they had fallen on hard times.
Hard
times brought about by illness, by death and by poverty.
Some
simply left destitute when fathers damaged by war could no longer cope.
Again,
we say sorry for the extended families you never knew.
We
acknowledge the particular pain of children shipped to Australia as child
migrants - robbed of your families, robbed of your homeland, regarded not
as innocent children but regarded instead as a source of child labour.
To
those of you who were told you were orphans, brought here without your
parents' knowledge or consent, we acknowledge the lies you were told, the
lies told to your mothers and fathers, and the pain these lies have caused
for a lifetime.
To
those of you separated on the dockside from your brothers and sisters;
taken alone and unprotected to the most remote parts of a foreign land -
we acknowledge today that the laws of our nation failed you.
And
for this we are deeply sorry.
We
think also today of all the families of these Forgotten Australians and
former child migrants who are still grieving, families who were never
reunited, families who were never reconciled, families who were lost to
one another forever.
We
reflect too on the burden that is still carried by our own children, your
own children, your grandchildren, your husbands, your wives, your partners
and your friends - and we thank them for the faith, the love and the depth
of commitment that has helped see you through the valley of tears that was
not of your own making.
And we
reflect with you as well, in sad remembrance, on those who simply could
not cope and who took their own lives in absolute despair.
We
recognise the pain you have suffered.
Pain
is so very, very personal.
Pain
is so profoundly disabling.
So,
let us together, as a nation, allow this apology to begin to heal this
pain.
Healing the pain felt by so many of the half a million of our fellow
Australians who were children in care - children in our care.
And
let us also resolve this day that this national apology becomes a turning
point in our nation's story.
A
turning point for shattered lives.
A
turning point for governments at all levels and of every political hue and
colour to do all in our power to never let this happen again.
For
the protection of children is the sacred duty of us all.
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