Kevin Rudd has formally apologised to the 500,000 Forgotten Australians and former child migrants who suffered abuse while in out-of-home care last century.Hundreds of people gathered in parliament's Great Hall to hear the Prime Minister and Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull say sorry and acknowledge the "great wrongs" of the past.The audience, which included many Forgotten Australians who had travelled to Canberra for the event, welcomed Mr Rudd with rapturous applause.
Warilla man one of the Forgotten Australians"Our purpose today in this Great Hall of this great Australian Parliament is to begin to put right a very great wrong," Mr Rudd said."To acknowledge the great wrong that has been done to so many of our children. And as a nation to apologise for this great wrong and as a nation to resolve that such systematic abuse should never happen again."The truth is, this is an ugly story, and its ugliness must be told without fear or favour if we are to confront fully the demons of our past and in so doing animate once again the better angels of our human nature."Mr Rudd said the apology represented a turning point for "shattered lives" and the nation's political leadership. Mr Turnbull, who was close to tears several times throughout his apology, said the Forgotten Australians were exposed to horrors no child should ever have had to endure."You were abandoned and betrayed by governments, churches and charities," he said."Thousands of children, some of you taken from the other side of the world, were placed in institutions ... called homes, although most were as far from home as one could ever imagine."Today I want you to know we admire you, we believe you, we love you."The apologies follow two Senate inquiries, both of which recorded horrific abuse and neglect of children.The 2004 Forgotten Australians Senate report estimated that at least 500,000 children had been placed in more than 500 orphanages, homes or other forms of care from 1920 to 1980 - many because they were born to single mothers or were the victims of family break-ups or poverty.The inquiry found a "litany of emotional, physical and sexual abuse, and often criminal physical and sexual assault" and widespread deprivation of food, education and health care.It recommended state governments, churches and other agencies say sorry for the harm caused and called for a national fund for victims of abuse.
