They were "drugged, deceived and shamed".
That is how West Australian Opposition Leader Mia Davies has described the treatment of mothers whose babies were forcibly removed during the forced adoption era.
Speaking in the WA Parliament today, Ms Davies called for WA to follow Victoria and hold an inquiry into forced adoption practices that she said had left survivors still suffering from heartbreak and trauma.
It is estimated more than 150,000 babies were adopted out across Australia from the 1950s to the 1980s, many of them considered to be "forced" adoptions involving unwed mothers.
About a dozen survivors — mothers and adoptees (people who were adopted as children) — watched on from the public gallery as Ms Davies outlined her case.
She said it had been nearly 12 years since WA became the first state in the country to apologise for forced adoption, but little had been done since to support survivors.
"The apology was just the first step," she said.
"After 12 years, it's time for our parliament to take further and urgent action.
"It was illegal, it was abhorrent and it has created enormous grief for those who have been impacted."
She said an inquiry would allow the state government to work on solutions with survivors to the challenges they still faced accessing medical records and adequate support services.
Outside parliament, Ms Davies said financial redress for survivors would also be a likely recommendation from an inquiry.
"And, in a state as wealthy as Western Australia, with a $6 billion surplus, I don't think that should be something that we should be shy about," she said.
Among the mothers in the public gallery was 94-year-old Michelle Davies, whose son was removed in the 1950s, after an emergency caesarean at King Edward Memorial Hospital.
"We got no help or advice at all," she said.
"I was put in a room at King Edward and nobody spoke to me for four days."
Ms Davies said many women were pressured into signing their adoption papers with no legal representation and she felt this was one of the issues that should be examined by an inquiry.
WA urged to fix 'unfinished business'
The Opposition leader said that Victoria started its inquiry in 2019 and a subsequent report had made 56 recommendations to address the "immeasurable pain" that had resulted from the separation of thousands of mothers and babies through "unethical, deceitful and immoral" policies.
In March this year, the Victorian government announced it would spend more than $4 million designing a redress scheme.
The campaign for an inquiry in WA is being led by a group of adoptees and mothers who argue there is "unfinished business" that has to be dealt with.
The group says not enough is being done to restore basic human rights to survivors.
For example, they say the WA government has failed to implement key recommendations from a Senate inquiry report in 2012 that would remove the barriers facing adoptees now trying to reclaim their real identities.
Simple things like accessing records, reverting to your original name or having your biological father's name recorded on an original birth certificate are all still onerous processes, they say.
They also want the truth uncovered, including exposing who the powerful brokers of adoption were during the forced adoption era.
Time needed: Minister
Responding to the call for an inquiry, Community Services Minister Simone McGurk told parliament the government was looking at the issue as a priority.
She said they were currently reviewing complex recommendations from a range of previous inquiries into forced adoption.
But she said this would take time, and the opposition had neglected the issue when it was in power.
"Lack of progress by the previous government to any of the recommendations in the 2012 Senate Community Affairs Reference Committee report on this issue means that we've had to revive the work anew, which unfortunately takes time," Ms McGurk said.
