SYDNEY // Christine Cole was pinned to the bed by three nurses as her newborn baby was taken away in 1969. She was not allowed to see her daughter, let alone cradle her in her arms.
Ms Cole was one of an estimated 150,000 Australian women forced to give up their babies for adoption between the 1940s and 1980s. Now the federal government is poised to apologise to them, in the nation's latest attempt to atone for the shameful episodes in its past.
The women were young single mothers, often from poor or fractured families, whose babies were taken from them at birth and given to middle-class married couples. The aim of the policy - pursued by state welfare agencies and church organisations - was to assimilate illegitimate children into "respectable" society and absolve the state of financial responsibility for their upkeep.
After a long campaign by the women, a parliamentary committee held an 18-month inquiry and, last week, it tabled a report recommending a formal apology be given to the mothers and their children.
If that happens, it will be the third set-piece apology in five years. In 2008, the then prime minister Kevin Rudd apologised to the "stolen generations" of aboriginal children forcibly removed from their families. The following year, it was the turn of British child migrants sent to Australia and abused in church and state-run institutions. Lawyers say the mooted apology will strengthen the grounds for legal action by the women, some of whom are considering a class action.
Women were pressured, threatened or deceived into signing adoption consent papers, according to Ms Cole, who was 16 when she gave up her daughter. "I never saw my baby," she said. "Three nurses held me down as they took her out of the room."
Ms Cole was among nearly 400 women who made submissions to a Senate (upper house) committee chaired by Rachel Siewert, an Australian Greens politician. Ms Siewert was almost in tears as she tabled the report. Another committee member, Claire Moore, called the adoptions "a horror of our history".
The inquiry heard that young pregnant women had their file marked "BFA" (Baby for Adoption) months before the birth, but were never consulted. Some babies were adopted by doctors or social workers. The practice went on in hospitals run by the state and by religious organisations.
Lily Arthur gave birth to her son, Tim, while tied to a hospital bed in Brisbane. It was 1967, and she was 17. She was allowed to cradle him in her arms for five minutes - but only after signing adoption papers.
Ms Arthur had been planning to marry her boyfriend, the father of her child. While pregnant, she was arrested on a charge of "being exposed to moral danger", and taken to a girls' home run by the Sisters of Mercy, a Roman Catholic order. She had to work in the laundry until the day she went into labour.
The birth was a nightmare. "I was placed in a sideways running position, with my left leg tied up in a stirrup and my right leg pulled behind me. My face was pushed into a mattress, and they were leaning on my shoulder. They took my son from behind and whisked him out the door."
Ms Arthur was threatened with incarceration in a high-security children's home unless she agreed to give Tim up. Three decades later, she tracked him down. At first, he refused to see her.
Ms Cole, who has researched the subject for a doctoral degree, believes that the authorities "preyed on" the most vulnerable women - orphans, wards of state and those without family support.
She gave birth in a women's hospital in Sydney. "She [the baby] didn't cry, so I tried to get up to see if she was all right. But they had placed a pillow on my chest to stop me seeing what was going on. The nurses threw me back on the bed. The midwife was at the end of the bed and she said to me: 'This has got nothing to do with you.'"
Then, Ms Cole said: "They gave me drugs to dry up my milk. I was taken to a hospital annex and held there for five days, and told I couldn't leave until I signed the adoption consent." Feeling befuddled from drugs including mind-altering barbiturates - she has seen her medical file - she eventually agreed.
Catholic Health Australia, which operates many hospitals, has already apologised for past adoption practices, as have the Uniting Church and the Western Australian government.
Ms Cole eventually managed to trace her daughter. But their reunion was far from blissful. "She had grown up believing that her mother didn't want her," she said. "We've tried to build a relationship as best we can, but it hasn't been easy." Ms Cole, who married and had two sons, says she "always had a terrible fear that another of my children would be taken away". She continues to work on her doctorate and runs the Apology Alliance, an alliance of support groups.
Like many of the women, she suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. "We didn't know where our children were, whether they were dead or alive, whether they were suffering. We find Mothers' Day very difficult, we find Christmas very difficult, because we always think about our missing children.
foreign.desk@thenational.ae
CREW
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In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Tax authority targets shisha levy evasion
The Federal Tax Authority will track shisha imports with electronic markers to protect customers and ensure levies have been paid.
Khalid Ali Al Bustani, director of the tax authority, on Sunday said the move is to "prevent tax evasion and support the authority’s tax collection efforts".
The scheme’s first phase, which came into effect on 1st January, 2019, covers all types of imported and domestically produced and distributed cigarettes. As of May 1, importing any type of cigarettes without the digital marks will be prohibited.
He said the latest phase will see imported and locally produced shisha tobacco tracked by the final quarter of this year.
"The FTA also maintains ongoing communication with concerned companies, to help them adapt their systems to meet our requirements and coordinate between all parties involved," he said.
As with cigarettes, shisha was hit with a 100 per cent tax in October 2017, though manufacturers and cafes absorbed some of the costs to prevent prices doubling.
What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
- Grade 9 = above an A*
- Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
- Grade 7 = grade A
- Grade 6 = just above a grade B
- Grade 5 = between grades B and C
- Grade 4 = grade C
- Grade 3 = between grades D and E
- Grade 2 = between grades E and F
- Grade 1 = between grades F and G
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