Select Committee into Child Migration (1996 - 1996)

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A major aim of the Select Committee was to inquire into and report on the action necessary to assist former child migrants in the tracing of their family history and research, the tracing of relatives and reunification with them.

The Select Committee also investigated other aspects of the child migration schemes including their history, the agencies involved in emigrating children, the institutions child migrants were sent to, the role of all governments in promoting and supporting the schemes and their impact on people's lives.

In November 1996, the Committee tabled an interim report that noted the establishment of this Committee was the 'culmination of a growing awareness by the community that child migration did occur and was a policy actively promoted by various governments. This Committee was also a tacit acknowledgment by the Parliament of Western Australia that some measure of responsibility was owed to these people.'

With a State general election imminent, the Parliament did not take up the Committee's preferred option of continuing the inquiry through the establishment of an Honorary Royal Commission.