originsnsw/sitebuildercontent/sitebuilderfiles/horn1.pdf Reply by Cameron Horn, member of Origins Inc (from the perspective of a father whose child was removed by adoption) Reply to Australian Institute of Family Studies final report into Impact of past adoption practices (Higgins – March 2010) The fact that reliable figures are not available, must surely be the first indication that past adoption practices have been subject to serious mismanagement. The report then describes adoption as a ‘common’ event. If such an event is so commonplace, then why were records not kept in a systematic way by adoption workers going about their day-to-day commonplace business? The birth of a baby is a ‘common’ event, yet agencies are perfectly capable of registering the overwhelming number of such occurrences. The death of an individual is a ‘common’ event and yet, likewise such events are methodically and accurately recorded en masse. Similarly, with marriage, divorce, name-changes, tax and income records etc. How appalling has adoption record keeping been that the first conclusion the AIFS’s review must come to is that “reliable figures are not available”? The registration of a motor vehicle is a ‘common’ event. If agencies are capable of keeping track of every motor vehicle bought and sold, registered, deregistered, written-off, motor changed etc, then why are there not accurate records of the movement of babies from their biological mothers to biological strangers? If, in a review of motor vehicle registrations we were forced to come to the conclusion that “reliable figures are not available” then we would automatically and rightly assume criminal activity, or slack industry work practice with the likelihood of criminal activity – it would be a major scandal and prosecutions would surely follow. If then, we would judge so harshly the slack handling of records associated with an inanimate possession like a motor vehicle, a boat, a firearm or a home, why then are we not similarly alarmed by the fact that no accurate records exist pertaining to the custody of a human being? There is great consternation regarding the lack of accurate life records among the Australian Indigenous population. Why then is there not an equal reaction in this report regarding the same situation when it pertains to a certain class of whites? Why does this report summarily skim over this lack of accurate record-keeping with barely a mention, rather than heralding this as the scandal that it is? …..READ MORE AT ORIGINS NSW
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 06:56:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015