Lost Innocents Report
The Australian Senate Community Affairs Committee released its report relating to child migration schemes to Australia in the twentieth century, through which children from Britain and Malta were transported without their or their families' consent to Australian institutions.
Instigated by Australian Senator Andrew Murray, himself a former child migrant forcibly removed from Britain to Zimbabwe, in response to "a number of calls from different groups and individuals for an independent national inquiry into child migration to Australia" (section 1.12, Lost Innocents Report). In particular the International Association of Former CHild Migrants and their Families had advocated effectively for the inquiry (Section 1.12).
Forgotten Australians Report
Following years of advocacy, research and testimony, the Australian Senate Community Affairs References Committee published ‘Forgotten Australians: A report on Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care as children’. It contains 39 recommendations based on a comprehensive outline of the historical and ongoing experiences of ‘upwards of… 500,000’ people (page xv), hundreds of whom provided direct personal testimony to the Committee.
Mullighan Inquiry (SA)
The Children in State Care Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of Sexual Abuse and Death from Criminal Misconduct—better known as the Mullighan Inquiry after its Chief Commissioner, Ted Mullighan—was presented to the South Australian Government in March 2008 after four years of hearings.
Usher Report (NSW)
The New South Wales Minster for Health and Community Services appointed Fr John Usher, Catholic Priest and Director of Centacare Sydney, to lead a formal review of “Substitute Care Services” in that state. SNYPIC (NSW State Network of Young People in Care), one of the first advocacy organisations for the interests of young people in care, was established as a recommendation of this report.
NSW Inquiry into Adoption Practices
Known as the “Releasing the Past” report, the NSW Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Issues led an inquiry into adoption practices in between 1950 and 1998. It focussed on the experiences of children who were adopted and, significantly, on the experiences of mothers who lost children.
National Forced Adoption Inquiry
The Australian Senate’s Community Affairs References Committee Inquiry into “Commonwealth Contribution to Former Forced Adoption Policies and Practices,” followed earlier reports such as the New South Wales Report into Adoption Practices (2000), which had highlighted and documented the terminology of ‘forced adoption’.
NT Youth Detention Royal Commission
The Royal Commission and Board of Inquiry in the Protection and Detention of Children in the Northern Territory (NT), triggered by revelations of intense mistreatment at the Don Dale Youth Justice facility in Darwin, examined conditions for incarcerated children in the NT. It found that that youth detention centres in the NT were not fit for accommodating children. Chapter 35 covers what it describes as “the crossover of care and detention”, and included a range of recommendations aimed at addressing the connection between out-of-home care and the criminal justice system.
Victorian Forced Adoption Inquiry
The Victorian Legislative Assembly Legal and Social Issues Committee prepared and presented a report on their “Inquiry into responses to historical forced adoptions in Victoria”. It made 56 recommendations related to acknowledgement of harms, redress, records and legislative reform.
Cummins Report (Vic.)
The report of the Protecting Victoria's Vulnerable Children Inquiry by the Victorian Government - known as the Cummins Report after its Chair Philip Cummins - provided a comprehensive overview of the contemporary Child Protection and out-of-home care sectors. It made a range of recommendations that led to the development of new services.
Bringing Them Home Report
A critically important text that paved the way for recognition of the Stolen Generations - the thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children removed from their families over generations of colonisation in Australia. It was written by the Australian Human Rights Commission as the Final Report of the “National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families”, which was the culmination of many years of advocacy by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activists and survivors.
