In the Bringing Them Home[*] report, we learnt about the stolen generations.
In the Senate report on child migration[†], we learnt of British and Maltese children who were brutalised in Australian orphanages.
From the Wood royal commission, we learnt of paedophile rings.
More recently, the focus has shifted to sexual abuse of children by the clergy, and cover-ups by bishops more interested in protecting institutions than young people.
Australians have lost their innocence. And if ever we thought of ourselves as a child-friendly nation, we have had to reconsider.
But at least one more chapter needs to be written before we can close the book.
This is the story of the tens of thousands of non-indigenous children who were taken from their families, on the flimsiest motives, and put into orphanages and children's homes, into State care, or the care of the Church.
Many children were deemed neglected simply because their parents were poor and neighbours disapproved of their behaviour.
In the days before the sole parent pension, deserted wives often had no choice but to give their children up to care.
Sassy girls were called uncontrollable and taken away. __________
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The idea that institutions could be good for children persisted into the 1970s.
Through the 40s, 50s and 60s, children's views and feelings were often discounted, corporal punishment was fierce and children could be mistreated with impunity.
As with the stolen generations, we are not dealing with ancient history.
Scarred in childhood by abuse and the lack of family and affection, many former State wards and so-called orphans grew into dysfunctional adults with major emotional problems.
W.A. Democrats Senator Andrew Murray wants a Senate inquiry into the abuse of children in care, and will put a motion to that effect when Parliament resumes.
He has given notice of the terms of reference, which include whether there is "a need for a formal acknowledgement by Australian governments of the human anguish" these people suffered.
"It is the third part of the trilogy after the stolen generations and the child migrants," he said.
"It will close the circle."
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‘It is the third part of the trilogy after the stolen generations and the child migrants,’ -- Senator Murray |
SENATOR Murray, a child migrant from Britain, was the force behind last year's Senate inquiry into the mass transportation of children across the world to Australian institutions that in some cases resembled Victorian workhouses. Former child migrants told harrowing stories.
Recently, the Anglican Church apologised to those who, as children, had been sexually abused by clergy.
But that is the tip of the iceberg. According to Senator Murray, up to 60,000 children across Australia were sent to orphanages or institutions during the 20th century.
Many of them suffered terribly, not just at the hands of clerics, but, more usually, at the hands of ordinary Australians.
Some, though not all, were sexually and physically assaulted. They felt abandoned, desperate, unloved, friendless and lonely.
Many lost contact with parents, brothers and sisters and have been searching every since.
Some Australians may object to another inquiry into the child abuse, but it is long overdue.
A small group called Care Leavers Australia Network (CLAN), set up in July 2000, has been lobbying for recognition of the injustice, mistreatment and ongoing trauma suffered by so many children put into care.
Founders Leonie Sheedy and Joanna Penglase say former State wards, home children and foster children remain invisible, their pain unacknowledged.
This, they say, needs to change.
They receive little support unlike adopted children, for example, who can contact the Post Adoption Resource Centre for advice and counselling.
A telephone helpline for adult former State wards, set up after the Wood royal commission, is in jeopardy due to funding cuts by the New South Wales' Department of Community Services.
Senator Murray's motion deserves support.
Through ignorance and carelessness, public policy robbed many children in the past of a good start. It put some into the hands of sadists and abusers and people who believed children needed harsh discipline.
There are also stories that need to [be] told -- to tell the true history of Australia's children and to give those children a chance to heal.
Stories like that of Ms Penglase describing the abuse of her sister.
"Every day I watched my sister be beaten, kicked down the stairs, slapped around the head," she says. "(Every day) she was told what a wicked, dreadful, unlovable person she was."