An inquiry into historical forced adoptions in Western Australia will provide an opportunity for truth-telling and recognition, Premier Mark McGowan says.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A parliamentary committee has been tasked with examining the issue after lobbying from the state Liberal opposition.
More than 150,000 babies are estimated to have been taken from mostly unmarried Australian mothers across several decades through to the 1980s.
The NSW-born premier says his government supports the inquiry, revealing the impact of the practice on his family.
"My grandmother died when I was 12. I learnt subsequently from my mother that she had an older sister that my grandmother was forced to give away when she was a young woman," he told reporters on Tuesday.
"It was a bit of a revelation to me. It was a different era - I think it was back in the 1920s or 1930s when it happened.
"But it obviously caused a lot of pain, I suspect, for my grandmother."
Mr McGowan hoped the inquiry would consider what support and closure could be offered to those who were forcibly adopted and their birth mothers.
Ensuring the issue was recognised as part of WA's history was also an important consideration.
"This is an awful thing that happened to many women," he said.
"Inquiring into these things and providing some sort of truth-telling, and perhaps some recognition, is a good thing."
Liberal leader Libby Mettam wrote to the premier last week calling for an inquiry into what she described as a dark chapter in the state's history.
She said there were many elderly mothers who wanted to tell their now-adult children they were not willingly given up for adoption.
"I strongly believe they should be given this opportunity of a platform for their experiences and concerns and to help end years of suffering," she said.
"Just as importantly, I understand that many of those who were removed from their mothers want to see urgent legislative reform that will allow them easy access to their birth records and birth identity."
WA's parliament in 2010 became the first in Australia to apologise to unwed mothers for the removal of newborns, although other states have since gone further in holding their own inquiries into the practice.
Australian Associated Press
