‘Forgotten Australians’ call for Royal Commission into sexual abuse

Chris Peterson
Naarm/Melbourne
October 15, 2012
Issue 
942
News
Rally for Forgotten Australians, October 13. Photo: Ali Bakhtiarvandi

Members of the Forgotten Australians rallied in Melbourne on October 13 to demand a Royal Commission into the sexual abuse, emotional and criminal assault, and torture of children in church and government-run homes, orphanages and foster care homes. The term Forgotten Australian refers to children who were placed in care outside of their family home during the 20th century.

The Australian Mental Health Human Rights and Law Reform Coalition’s Greg Oke said: “The aim of today is to highlight the lack of resources provided to Forgotten Australians to get some justice for the absolutely hideous crimes that were committed while under state care.

“Many Forgotten Australians are still living in appalling housing conditions. Many are still suffering from disabilities and traumas inflicted on them by the institutionalised and systemic abuse while under the care of the church and the state. So far nothing has been put in place to help these survivors improve their quality of life.”

Indigenous rights activist Kelvin Onus-King said: “This is the first time many of these survivors have taken part in a political protest. These people were subject to torture including medical experiments without their consent.

"Successive governments failed in their duty of care to provide adequate resources to achieve redress and justice.”

Australia

Comments

Anonymous replied on

We are still being ignored by the Governments and the Churches and Charities of the crimes suffered in these childrens homes, orphanages , foster home care , out of home care , institutional childrens homes , the list goes on and on, Their have been State and Territory Apologies and that of The National Apology of which took place on the 16th November 2009 , And still to this day these predators have not been prosecuted for the crimes they committed , the Government and Governments and that of the Churches and Charities of where children were to be cared for, and still these predators have not been prosecuted for their crimes they have done against so many hundreds and hundreds of thousand of Forgotten Australians and that of other children who have been abused of the most horriffic crimes a child could suffer , The Corruptions and Cover Ups that still continue with the saying that documents can not be found , of which are the records they will not give because the truth is real of what was suffered by these abusers who had control and for those who have covered their crimes for these predators to be prosecuted also by the law , The saddest thing is they can have the records of people being flogged for stealing a loaf of bread in the 1700's and rapes and abuse , so where are all records from the 1900's to the 1990's , , Where is our Justice and the Justice for those who are no longer with us Why are these predators not being Prosecuted for their crimes they did to so many hundreds of thousands of children, And by still covering up these crimes of whiched happend to those of us who were only children , 90 years of crimes covered up , and the knowing of these abuses of which have happend no doubt their would be crimes of of harm to children when the first fleets came here ,of which proberly still have been kept secret within the Government and Governments and Churches and Charities and all other Organisations who had control of children under their care , from a real Forgotten Australian . Micheal John Brown , huffnpuff, Mick Brown

Anonymous replied on

what we should be demanding Australia wide is a look at childhood sexual abuse across the board and then that would give some data into the risks for children in 'care' away from their families of origin versus children within their genetic kin. As an adoptee who was abused pysychologically, physically, sexually and spiritually and 'blamed' , I believe this type of research would go along way in exposing the root cause of our huge levels of emotional distress people are 'diagnosed with' ...

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