A very clear, wide-ranging article exposing the moral bankruptcy of governments, churches and charities which ran these hell-holes. It's yet another facet of the Forgotten Australians' tragedy to complement what Haygirl, Wilma, Bernie Matthews and others have been saying about sexual and physical abuse in children's institutions. Slave labour and abuse were illegal, but staff in institutions got away with horrific stuff because there was no one holding them accountable.

A common defence heard these days is that that was the way things were in the bad old days, and staff were simply reflecting prevailing attitudes. This is codswallop. Child labour and abuse have always been wrong and will always be wrong.

The lack or response to the Senate Report in NSW is replicated in Victoria. It's interesting to note that the smaller States - Tasmania and Queensland, and SA and WA (soon) - that have set up enquiries or redress schemes (or both) while the big States just hope the issues will simply go away.

Every month this year Victorian careleavers - members of CLAN - have been holding a silent vigil on the steps of Parliament House to protest the lack of action and interest by the Victorian Government. Many are elderly and infirm and are still suffering the long-lasting effects of having the State as their parents in childhoodbut are determined to push for redress and better services in their senior years from the State which let them down so badly as children.

hi frank,joanna,leonnie,richard,greg,haygirl,bernie,willma,and all other forgotten australians , i totally agree with you on this issue as the n.s.w andvic,goverments have to answer to us for what we suffered at the hands of these pedophiles that raped and abused us as children in their state run institutions,orphanages,girls homes boys homes,remand centers,foster homes, out of home care,and chuch homes , yes you are correct as to what you say about the slavery and abuse that we suffered, at the hands of these pedophiles that worked in these places,yet the goverment is still sweeping us all under the carpet ,it states in the 1939 welfare act that the goverment can not make prohit for anything or from any one ,yet at daruk boys home it was used as an illegal tyre dumping ground of which me and manyothers every weekend had to put these truck,car,tractor and all other tyres into 60 foot holes , and the goverment was being payed for this dumping ground , and yes thats not all the children were being raped and abused bashed made do unforceiable acts for the staff of this institution, as would of been similar at other homes , im real im true and when a judge says your complaint is real and a tragic part of our history then dissmisses it through legal loop holes the copurts and goverment have ,well thats not stoping my fight in the supreme court, ive appealed that dission and it is sat for a date on the 6 december this year , i losy my failys home fighting this goverment and their is no way im going to stop the fight for justice not only for my self but for that of other victims like me ,we are the forgotten australians but we will not be forgotten let me asure you of that ,the goverment is wanting us to suffer even more by not admitting to the truth, if some thing ever happend to some one close to them they would then understand what it feels like ,i have only 2 post left

Rudd isn't addressing humanity and Howard's mob doesn't have a reference point to even know where to start;

Why do we need solid community infrastructure?

Because;

Be in in Australa or Overseas. Systemic and systematic forms of cruelty is being inflicted on tens of thousands of people DAILY and their children too, through no fault of their own, suffer the unimaginable loss of their own families for a lifetime.

NO ONE WINS A THIS KIND OF WAR---> WE ARE LEFT EACH WITH THE BURDEN, DEALING WITH THE SCAR's AS WILL THE GENERATIONS TO COME!

"The physical, emotional, sexual and other forms of cruelty and neglect which these children endured have resulted in suicide, fractured and fraught relationships, unemployment, isolation, depression, anxiety, alcoholism and drug addictions, and various combinations thereof."

YES!

My own childhood, youth, and now adulthood experience is struggling to deal with these facts in REALITY. (WWII - VIETNAM - DARFUR - IRAQ - AFGANISTAN... BURMA....and the rest...where will it END).

The same global wreckage REPEATED. Those displaced UNWANTED.

Our generation, then their generation- GADS it makes me work harder. STOP WAR - ECONOMIC GREED + it's associated IGNORANCE and VIOLENCE.

As I said Australia, why is it only those of us who have been exposed to WAR TORN DEVASTION and FAMILY TRAUMA - left to clean up the MESS?

VALUABLE HUMAN KNOWLEDGE LOST through the persistant of colonial "white servant" mentality and "white collar" multi-national SPIN.

It is why I refuse to cop the crap in the present elections. The Howard lot on the NT approach (DISGUSTING) or anything to do with handouts of 'Carer's or Disablity' (BLACKMAIL). With all it's ill-human, unconstrained wreakless just to GRAB A BACKWARD FORM OF POWER.

At the begining of this "phoney" election I said LOOK AT THE INVISIBLES.

I was pleased for two moments as we appeared nationally to be learning something.

Alas, we GAZE AGHAST at their mindlessness, erractic historical patterns of unclaulated abuse and APATHY.

http://www.miacat.com
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Life was always hard for the working class. In the "olden" days -
unemployment was a fact of life, and few working men and women spent their lives in full employment. There was no social security system, and unemployed people relied on aid from charitable organisations. Working conditions were primitive by today's standards. Factories were overcrowded and badly ventilated. There were few safeguards regarding the operation of machinery, and industrial accidents were common. Wages were low, and hours worked were long. Children were employed in factories.

These social conditions attracted the attention of reformers. They also stimulated the growth of the trade union movement.

Between 1885 and 1900 Victoria passed acts extending control on
factories. The employment of children was prohibited.

Worldwide there are 6oo million child laborers and many are worked ruthlessly in the day, and exploited sexually by night.
We live in a system which is based upon slave labor. In todays climate, child labor is on the increase - not the decrease. For many families there is no choice, they are paid so little, a few dollars a day that they send children out to bring in a little extra. I do not condone it but explain it. Children are forced to work from one end of the earth to another, global firms and major powers are in a conflict for ever cheaper forms of labor, resources and markets, including strategic influence and control of major areas. The conflicts in the Middle East are the most violent expressions, to this point, of this global process that leads inexorably to each against all - including trade war and shooting war. Let us never forget, the treacherous trade unions and Labor Parties oversee or enforce the exploitation and abuse of children in many countries. In Roman times (chattel slavery)slaves had certain basic rights which could not be infringed. But today workers have even less rights.
It is to be expected, when the whole system is based on exploitation where the rule is for ever cheaper forms of labor - that is the rule not the exception. Nor can child labor and slavery be ameliorated for the long term. Otherwise why hasn't it happened? Nor can you do away with it unless you fundamentally change the system responsible for it. Today, the use of nuclear weapons against Iran is on the table, which will create an enormous cataclysm. Already, a million children have perished in Iraq through the previous trade sanctions and war.

johncee1945

It's interesting to have this tragic story put into an international perspective, so thank you for that.

However, while I do not under-estimate the extent of child exploitation in many countries, let's not deflect attention from the fact that many thousands of Australian children - in this Christian country - were, as you put it, 'worked ruthlessly in the day, and exploited sexually by night'. And the victims suffer still from their betrayed childhoods.

This is not a debate about trade unions and Labor Parties, whether here or over there. It's about Christian churches and charities allowing vulnerable children to be used and abused in Australia. And perhaps the most shameful aspect: these 'care-givers' and the governments that were supposed to regulate and supervise what was happening failed in their duty, and now seek to off-load their culpability.

The Forgotten Australians must never be forgotten.