Sydney, October 27: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will make a formal apology to hundreds of thousands of child-abuse victims known as the “Forgotten Australians” next month, officials said on Tuesday.
Rudd will apologise on behalf of the country to those remaining among some 500,000 children who were abused in orphanages and public institutions between 1930 and 1970, Families Minister Jenny Macklin said.
The November 16 statement in Parliament House follows Rudd’s landmark apology in February last year to Australia’s “Stolen Generation” of Aboriginal children taken from their families for assimilation into the white community.
“Many of these children were subject to emotional, physical and sexual abuse at the hands of those who were responsible to care for them,” Macklin told parliament.
“Today many of them continue to struggle as a result of their experiences, grappling with mental illness, homelessness, substance abuse, educational and financial difficulties.”
A 2004 Senate inquiry recommended the apology to the children, including some 7,000 migrants from Britain, who suffered at the hands of their carers.
Leonie Sheedy of the Care Leavers Australia Network, who was in tears at the announcement, said the move was “vital” to help abuse victims recover.
“To the 500,000 Australians who grew up in the 500-plus orphanages and children?s homes it is very, very important to us to have our country and our prime minister acknowledge that what happened to us in those places was wrong,” she said.
“It’s vital for this country to heal and for us to heal as individuals. And for our children and our husbands and wives, to believe us, and for our children to understand why we’re the way we are.”
–Agencies