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.

hi again to all the forgotten australians , just wanting to say yes the slavery has been going on for years but , we see the goverment is not acting for us , ,and to all out their i have stated the names of the people that raped me in the daruk boys home ,if you want that information just go to the supreme court and request a copy of the court transcrpts, as for the truth the goverment knows the truth but they won't face up to the reality of what we suffered, as ive said if it were any member of their family going through this they would be doing everything in their power but because its not no one they know they don;t care ,and the thing is that all these abuses were going on in these institutions while both goverments were in power as that of liberal and labour so don't say it is just one goverments bodies fault as it is both goverments sides who had the responsabilities at diffrent times, justice is being denide for the purpose of wanting us to be silence well not this person , ive had personal friends that give their lives by suide because of what they suffered , yes and our own faimlys suffer ,with what has happend to us , the real truth as i keep on saying the goverment of today is not wanting to act because they know the truth is daming for them , at least if they admitted to what the senate inquireies done we all might be able to live the normal life ,but its hard when every day you read another pedophile charged dating back to the seventies or sixties or the eighties or the ninties and now the year of two thousands, tell me this who in parliment of any party is going to say one of their colleages are a pedophile ,hell they even warned agropalise, the same as the police prosicutor that was charged with porn ,

It is a sad fact that today the most dangerous place to be is in the mothers womb. This is where the greatest child abuse is taking place these days as a result of secular society. No matter how we try and justify it with unscientific nonsense it leaves blood on a lot of peoples hands.

STRUTURAL VIOLENCE is the worst kind of violence of all.

Put another way;

We will not ever clean up the violence in the street until we deal with the systemic and systematic forms of institutional abuse. This is the abstruse, sly, devious. hidden, usually injurious, usually invisible, insidious form of violence.

Be it general with welfare, social workers, doctors, nurses, diablities or mental health. Office managers, or because we have no access to the law.

Unfair bills and fines, inflated interests rates, politcal manipulations from a local council, the polices of individuals in business (inflated CEO wages and similar wage disparties), no demographic service funding that leads to pressure depleting communities, over zealous police or terror laws, sensational one-sided media bias, or the abuse of trust and betrayal by abusers from a religious sect or church.

Crime is Crime. Structual violence impacts the integrity of everyone, from the top, all the way down to ground.

For me, the worse crime of all is with bystanders. The people who watch, and do nothing.

Victimisation is a tricky business. I find often that it essentail that a victim does not represent themselves, because of the unjust process in the "burden to proof".

My focus is sharply on those working within the system.

The paid workers who are so often compliance, so comfortably quiet like sheep following the will of others.

These people fail to emancipate our nations policies, as they fail to ensure fair treatment and transparency for all.

My heart goes to anyone who struggles with having been abused,

I support yes, but I do not forget the OTHERs who can not speak-out.

Those displaced, unidentified nor protected.

The many who (daily) slip through the cracks.

I share the silence, and work to expose the need for greater equity, everywhere.

This is the knowledge we have, knowing, and it binds us as we attempt to sort through each case where ever we can.

For me it is with the cause of being a global citizenship, having a collective security, for which I refuse to forget.

http://www.miact.com
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This sure looks like another Artz grad indulging in "How can I find a perspective to display how the white Australian society I hate (but choose to live under) is rotten to the core."

The trick is to never just come out and say you hate white society, you just keep finding fault with it ad infinitum, while studiously avoiding any examination or comparison with other cultures.

In debating circles this litle trick which is used to hide your real motivations is known as "Always imply, but when challenged, deny."

Millions of black Africans are now at this moment being exploited in far worse conditions.However that is alright since they are doing it to their own kind.

It is a real shame that you have to go back 150 yrs in our history to find white trash to bash.Can't we find some present stolen generations to hold up as victims,or do we just ignore the damage done by sit down money that totally destroys the fabric of many in our community to the point of total dysfunctionality.ie murdering your own offspring.Hundreds of cases are documented,yet we continue to ignore the fact that money will not solve these problems.

Arjay

Sexual abuse and exploitation of children is criminal wherever it occurs and whenever. it occurs. Nohing can be used as an excuse. No one I know supports it. We all condemn it in the strongest terms. See my book, 'Protecting Children Around the World' (Therese Fitzgerald & Frank Golding, MacMillan, 1994).

So cut out the cheap and nasty jibes: "However that is alright since they are doing it to their own kind."

If you read the Senate Report, 'Forgotten Australians' (2004) you will see that we don't need to go back 150 years for cases of child abuse and exploitation. These crimes are much closer to home.

I find your comments offensive, all the more so because they are based on stupid ignorance. People's suffer enough without your kicking them in the guts.

Frank,you are offended by the truth and reality.Many of the people who write articles such as these have their own agenda's ie to obtain a Govt grant so they can just amplify the problem with more bureaucracy and sit down money.With the $billions the Aborigines were given,they are now worse off than when they had real employment.

What dsyfunctional societies need is purpose,ie put in a survival situation,given skills,education,discipline and family cohesion.It will take many generations to change but money and soft options are not the solutions.Mal Brough is on the right track.

ARJAY GET A LIFE, you are coming into a disscussion where it involves real people that are still living with the effects of what has happend to them while they where in run state intitutions, we are in australia not africa, we know that the abuse occurred world wide so don't play games with peoples minds to start conflict we are the forgotten australians something you don't seem to know about , like frank said read the senate reporst that were done then come back and give your opinion with some honesty not the dribble you are talking about, we are the victims that were raped and abused by the employees of the goverment ,they employed these pedophiles , ,so they are responsable, i guess you really wouldn't know what it is like to be a victim, and if you are a victim you sure are saying the wrong things, its best you know about something before you type your mouth off ,, the goverment is resposable for what happend to us as children and they know it ,if you want to be one of the one's that run ya mouth of for the sake of just having a say ,you best jump into bed with the goverment cause you don't seem to care as to what the forgotten australians are about ,regards micheal

Well, FrankGol "This is not a debate about trade unions and Labor Parties"
Then we should cover up for their crimes? Offer up some spin for them? Tell us they are not responsible? The Labor Party (the political arm of the trade unions) fought for precisely this and passed acts in Parliament, then issued instructions to the police to round the aboriginal children up. If you are serious about the issue they should be named. The Labor Party in Western Aust. was the first to promote and grab 'the stolen generation' offering them up as servants for sheep, cattle stations and mining. The orphanages and church played a despicable role as well.
As well, 200 years of genocide on the aboriginal race was overseen by the Labor Party and the trade unions, because above all else, they defend the profit system and all its inequities! None of it could of happened without their intervention and blessing.
Now tell us the trade unions do not go along or oversee 600 million child laborers and all their ill treatment around the world.

Arjay, Aboriginal peoples weren't given billions of dollars, the money gained from exploitation of their lands rightly belongs to them. The mining resources in this country belong to aboriginal people they never gave them up they never surrendered their country. You talk as if white Australia has given aboriginal people something. But I agree with hffnpff this article was discussing the very personal assaults inflicted on our most vulnerable people. Australia's orphans. Power to all who are fighting systemic abuse and the perpetraters of it. Migaloo woman Darumbal country.

Arjay, Aboriginal peoples weren't given billions of dollars, the money gained from .........
LAINEE,
Paedophilia is one of the worst human traits. Hypocricy is another one. They are not uniquely australian traits, they're human for want of a more suitable description. you're right the money gained from the exploitation of this land by the EFFORTS of the NEWCOMERS is not simply given to those who roamed that land. What monies & other eagerly coveted commodities have been provided is compensation for the loss of the roaming grounds & associated existence. No-one will ever know how many sick & undernourished children perished in those unrecorded times. reports by the early explorers do state of the wretched condition of tribes encountered. the europeans did not destroy a nirvana in any sense of the word but we do know that the atrocities are greatly outnumbered by the good deeds.

The capacity to abuse 'a fair day's pay for a fair day's work' is certainly still around if the evidence from 'Work Choices'is anything to go by. The authors illustrate the extreme of this. The Howard Government's mutual obligation 'philosophy' has this danger within it and I have experienced first hand how they are ready to apply it. Young people on 'allowances' as low as $5.80 an hour being sent onto private landowners property to do heavy labour at no cost to that owner, all under the guise of doing environmental work. Various governments attitudes toward voluntarism are just plain exploitation.
It disgusts me that NSW just ignores while Queensland quibbles over the stolen wages issue which amounted to outright theft by previous administrations. We must be ever vigilant to this capacity to abuse.

This is just so sad!

huffnpuff I am sorry to hear of your plight but glad to hear that you are putting up a fight. More people need to do the same so as to hold this Government to account. They are still today trying to cover up neglect and abuse of children, they will always try to cover up neglect and abuse of children because for the most part of it they are guilty of it themselves through their actions or lack of action!

I too am fighting the Government, although for different matters that involve the Government ignoring and not dealing with complaints about education staff victimising and bullying children and exercising bias and misconduct in education. The scary thing is that everybody turns a blind eye and turns it on you. Even TODAY people do not seem to care about the children and are quite prepared to allow a system to deny those trying to expose injustices aimed at children procedural fairness and natural justice. It seems that the only people who have rights are those who fail in their duty of care and commit crimes. These criminals are protected - the children do not have any avenue for protection and no rights.

Education - Keeping them HOnest
http://jolandachallita.typepad.com/education/

Good On You Huffnpuff, you give us all strength, by having it.

I just wanted to re-quote the wisdom from LAINEE and Jup;

a) 'Aboriginal peoples weren't given billions of dollars, the money gained from exploitation of their lands rightly belongs to them. ....aboriginal people never gave them... their country.'

and b) "Young people on 'allowances' .... do heavy labour... all under the guise of doing environmental work. "

"Various governments attitudes toward voluntarism are just plain exploitation."

and; " We must be ever vigilant to this capacity to abuse."

As an Administrator at Hope Vale in Cape York for a short time during 1999, my role was seriously manipulated by all sides of politics over moral issues to do with the struggle for Indigenous "Royalities" and the authentic control value of "CDEP".

At that time, I found the interference of outside politic's extremely unreasonable, backward and hostile. The integrity of these players was mostly out of line.

I found residents themselves to be hard workers and inspiring. It was impossible for those living there, who'd tried over many decades to form a platform of solid trust, faith and integrity. Hope Vale is a community suffering decades of betrayal through developmental chaos.

I fought to up-grade the skills training opportunities through CDEP. I was horrified that so many talented "young people" were expected to work like convicts on the roads, rates and rubbish without thought to wided their enterprising skills base. It all felt hopeless.

Southern Officals I interviewed (Cairns, Brisbance, ACT) suffered from a "politic's as usual" approach. It is about doing nothing or taking a easy way out.

NO attempt is made to really address these grassroot micro-enterprise needs. It is an environement capped with politcal adversity. Burn-Out and Stress is common among residents.

Meanwhile the Council is forced to import public servants for clerical work, CEO positions and the running of the shop. Like myself, these people are also affronted and don't stay very long.

Changing these base-line inequalities will go nowhere until we get an agenda based on some real infrastructure and common sense.

http://www.miacat.com
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Changing these base-line inequalities will go nowhere until we get an agenda based on some real infrastructure and common sense.
miacat,
Only yesterday I was talking with a community elder about that very problem. He complained that the southern fishermen are making money in the northern (his) waters. I asked why the young local blokes don't go out & catch fish just like the southerners. He said "how can we when the government doesn't give us boats". there are literally hundreds of unused dinghies lying around in these communities that could be used. He also said the young fellers don't get any support (what, after free education & more opportunities than any other youngster in this country). He also said the government's taking our land & put a school, a powerstation, a health centre & a TV transmitter on it & we got no compensation for it. He got angry when I told him that those fishermen didn't get their boats from the government so why should his people.
miacat, how do you suggest a community could forge ahead under these circumstances. I tell you how; get some motivation, get away from this instituionalised artificial racism nonsense, stop pussy-footing with delinquents, tell the academic do-gooders to stay at home & be quiet & let real decent people go about their daily lives without constant interference from mainly left-wing bureaucatic stupidity. Another good step in the right direction would be to work on getting some culture back instead of the reggae mentality that's ruined whatever culture there ever was.

It is obvious that any people who have commonsense solutions to the indigenous issues are labeled racist. The voices of the academics will continue to drown out those who have and do work with aboriginal people. Welfare, idleness, alcholol, drugs and pornography will continue to be the 'rights' of the people even if it kills them. The children will continue to be abused and the academics will say it is your fault if you are white no matter how much you try. The shame is not what happened 150 years ago but the fact that we let and have let these 'experts' push their political agendas for decades.

frankgol.....I always enjoy your strident moralistic overtures :)

You speak with such confidence as if to say "I assert it..thus is must be true"...no offence.. thats just how it comes across.. I guess I must seem the same at times eh :)

The difference between us is that you see these things as self evidence to all.. I see them as needing to be brought to bear on human consience with divine authority.

You said:

"Sexual abuse and exploitation of children is criminal wherever it occurs and whenever."

May I make a small distinction there? I'm reflecting on the old testament here.. child sexual abuse was a definite no no..but 'exploitation' has many sides. If a parent faces starvation of his family, then.. he would (in those days) 'sell' his son or daughter to a more prosperous individual as a servant. To do so did not mean automatic sexual abuse, but it was in some ways "exploitation" though I suggest not of the malevolent kind.

Life can be a real bitch.. when we are utterly dependant on an instutution or the mercy of better off people.. we kind of take the hand life deals us. No one would suggest that any kind if ill treatment is ok, yet in the real world it seems hard to avoid it all the time.

Don't you consider that if a society had a very strong sense of conscience and right and wrong... and had networks of people who could hold each other accountable, then... perhaps there would be less of this ?

People who relish the idea of 'power' over children may slip though the interview process of institutions.. the institution itself might be utterly desperate to have SOME-one to help... and this can produce compromise..

This leads me to the obvious (to those who know me) that nothing short of national and heartfelt repentance to the Almighty will ever produce a sense of values strong enough to produce a loving community.

BOAZ_David,

I'm pleased that you enjoy my 'strident moralistic overtures'. I wish I could say the feeling's mutual, but I hate to lie.

You tell me that: "The difference between us is that you see these things as self evidence to all.. I see them as needing to be brought to bear on human consience with divine authority." To which I reply, "What does 'human consience with divine authority' mean?"

Your old testament reference to a poor family selling a child is a cop out. I'm talking about conscious systemic child sexual abuse and exploitation that happenend in Australia within living memory.

Just as insipid is your reference to how "we kind of take the hand life deals us". No we don't. If the act is illegal, we fight it in the courts or anywhere we can get the perpetrator exposed. And we should expect peole like you to support us.

I don't think you have any idea of how children's institutions worked. You say: "People who relish the idea of 'power' over children may slip though the interview process of institutions.. the institution itself might be utterly desperate to have SOME-one to help... and this can produce compromise.." David, there were no interviews, no accountability, no one to speak on behalf of the child. Just dark corridors and locked dormitories.

As for your reference to "heartfelt repentance to the Almighty", the people who sodomised these vulnerable children then made them go to church. What were the buggerised little children meant to do - pray for the Lord's forgiveness for leading their adult 'carers' astray? Perhaps my experience explains what you call my 'strident moralistic overtures'.

Frank,you were spot on when you said "that's the way things were".I'm 55 and until recently i never queried the way i and others were treated in those "hell holes".That's the way things were in those days.It's really only the last few years that former inmates of those various institutions have started to question the care(or lack of)we received.I suppose most of us have been busy trying to make lives for ourselves,some with only the basic skills in the three R's,some with ongoing physical problems caused by the beatings and lack of proper nourishment.I said to someone the other day that i was lucky because i wasn't treated as badly as some and that person asked me how i would feel if my children or grandchildren were treated like i had been.My immediate reaction was HORROR.Funny how i could accept that life for myself yet see it as barbaric if the same were metered out to my family.