Victorian Government Apology
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan led an apology to all Victorians who experienced abuse and neglect as children in institutional care. In her official apology delivered in Victorian Parliament, Premier Jacinta Allan said, "Today we acknowledge a shameful chapter in our history, and the experience of a group of Victorians who have fought for a long time to be heard."
Parramatta Institutions Precinct
In 2023, the Parramatta Female Factory Institutions Precinct was included on UNESCO’s “Tentative List” for World Heritage status, a major step towards global recognition of the site’s significance. This has followed years of activism in the form of artistic and historical representations of former occupants’ experiences.
Find & Connect Support Services
The Commonwealth Department of Social Services (DSS) directly funds organisations in each State and Territory to provide ‘specialist trauma informed counselling, referral services, peer support, education and social support programs’ for people who had been in out-of-home Care before 1990. It also funds the ‘Find and Connect’ web resource that provides detailed and up-to-date information about historical organisations and facilities around Australia, and three ‘Find and Connect Representative Organisations’ whose role is to ‘present consolidated views and advice’ to the Government and the broader community sector. The overall program is funded until 30 June 2026.
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.
Institutional Harm Apology (Qld)
Following the Forde Inquiry, the Queensland Government issued an apology “To Those Harmed in Queensland Institutions during their Childhood”. It was also signed by representatives of religious orders including the Anglican Church, Catholic Church, and the Salvation Army.
Forde Inquiry (Qld)
The "Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions," known as the Forde Inquiry after its Chairperson, Leneen Forde, contained a wide-ranging description of "repeated physical, emotional and sexual abuse" of children in the care of the state over many generations, and a "failure to provide for the basic human needs of children" in institutions, including "limited education, little instruction in life skills and an emotional coldness that had a profound effect on their later lives." (page xii-xiii). It found that “unsafe, improper or unlawful” practices, in “breach… of relevant statutory obligations” occurred in Queensland institutions (p.iii).
Forde Foundation (Qld)
Established in response to a recommendation of Queensland's Forde Inquiry, the Forde Foundation provides small grants and other support for Care Leavers.
LOSS / ForWards (Vic)
LOSS (stands for Lives of State Shame) was a grassroots activist organisation established in Melbourne. LOSS had its origins, according to its First Annual General Report, in a public meeting held at Parliament House on 25 July 1997, attended by more than 100 former State Wards and allies, calling for attention to "the failure of the state to exercise due responsibility over the years for the many thousands of children under their care who were fostered out or institutionalised.” Over the next decade it played a crucial role in supporting former State Wards and raising the profile of justice for State Wards. It changed its name to ForWards in the early 2000s.
Lives of Uncommon Children
A collection of stories written by survivors of residential institutions in Queensland, Lives of Uncommon Children: Reflections of Forgotten Australians was published by Micah Projects, on behalf of Lotus Place, to mark the tenth anniversary of Queensland’s Forde Inquiry.
Neerkol Action Support Group (Qld)
The Neerkol Action Support Group began meeting in mid-1997. Survivors of the St Joseph’s Home, Neerkol (near Rockhampton), approached the Sisters of Mercy seeking an apology and access to counselling and other support services for the abuse and neglect they experienced as children in the institution. The group, though small, was instrumental in instigating the broader political movement towards the Commission of Inquiry into Abuse of Children in Queensland Institutions (1999), commonly known as the Forde Inquiry. The group’s approaches were also influential in subsequent models of recognition and redress used across Australia.
Primary documents relating to the Neerkol Action Support Group are held at the CLAN Orphanage Museum.