The Supporting Mother’s Benefit was a Commonwealth allowance introduced in 1973 by the Whitlam government. It extended equal access to income support to all single mothers. In November 1977, it was replaced by the Supporting Parent’s Benefit, with sole fathers becoming eligible for payments. This payment made it possible for many single mothers to keep…
The Widows’ Pension was a Commonwealth allowance introduced to enable widows with dependent children to stay at home and look after them, rather than having to go out to work to keep the family from destitution. From October 1942 until 1976, the Widows’ Pension was exempt from income tax. Single mothers, de facto wives and…
Broken Rites is an organisation formed in 1992 by victims of church-related sexual abuse. About 90 per cent of the men and women who have contacted Broken Rites Australia have been from a Catholic background. The organisation also supports victims from other denominations including the Anglican Church and the Uniting Church. Broken Rites does not…
The Fact-Finding Mission on Child Migration was a 1956 visit by a British team of inspectors to Australian institutions where British child migrants were living. One of its purposes was to decide whether Britain would continue to support migrant children after May 1957, when the British Empire Settlement Act, which provided for their maintenance, ceased…
The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry was established by the Northern Ireland Executive on 19 January 2013. It was created to investigate abuse suffered by children under the age of 18 years in institutions in Northern Ireland. As part of its work, the Inquiry examined the treatment of children in institutions in Northern Ireland who were…
An Inquiry into the Welfare of Former British Child Migrants was undertaken by the Parliament of the United Kingdom’s House of Commons Health Committee in 1997-98. In relation to Australia, the Inquiry was most interested in the fate of children who were sent from Britain in the twentieth century. The inquiry and its report (known…
‘Bringing Them Home after the Apology oral history project [sound recording]’ is a collection of interviews undertaken by the National Library of Australia. These interviews follow an earlier project that included oral histories from Indigenous people, missionaries, police and administrators who were ‘involved in or affected by’ the removal of Indigenous children from their families….
Open adoption is when an adoption occurs with no secrecy, the child can know who their birth parents are and the birth parents have the right to keep in contact with the child. It can be compared to closed adoption practices of the twentieth century and the effects these had on many people involved in…
Absconding is a term used to describe the act of running away or escaping from an institution, foster home or other place of care. The report of the 2004 Senate “Forgotten Australians” inquiry stated that ‘absconding was a widely reported practice’ in children’s institutions around Australia. Various child welfare laws around Australia made absconding or…
The ‘Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants oral history project’ was established in 2009 after the National Apology to people who had been in out of home care as children, including people who lived in foster care as children. It is a collection of audio interviews. The project sought to embrace the complexity of the…
Dec 17, 2025
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Nov 15, 2024