Labor pledges redress schemes for victims of forced adoptions, anti-homosexuality laws

“One of the darkest periods of Tasmania’s history.” Labor says it wants to right the wrongs of history by compensating two groups who suffered through “shameful” chapters of Tasmania’s past.

Labor's Tasmanian spokesperson for Justice and Corrections, Ella Haddad.

Labor says it wants to right the wrongs of history by compensating two groups of Tasmanians who suffered through “shameful” chapters of the state’s past.

Ella Haddad said it was “long overdue” to set up redress schemes for Tasmanian women who were forced to give up their children for adoption, as well as gay people charged under the state’s former anti-homosexuality laws.

The Justice and Corrections spokesperson said if elected next weekend, Labor would finally make good on recommendations made as far back as 2012, when former Premier Lara Giddings apologised to Tasmanian victims of forced adoptions.

“It’s such a sad part of our history,” Ms Haddad said, reflecting on the practice that was rife in Tasmania between the 1950s and 1980s.

She said a redress scheme was “long overdue” and was about “doing the right thing”.

“It’s been something that has caused lifelong trauma to those women.

“Many of them have managed to establish relationships with their children, but many of them haven’t and have felt very heartbroken around the assumptions that people make about why their children aren’t with them.

“They don’t use terminology like ‘giving up their children’ or ‘adopting them out’. They genuinely have had their children removed just because they were young, unwed mothers.”

Two years ago, a key Hobart lawyer acting for a group of women affected by forced adoptions urged the government to follow the Victorian government in establishing a redress scheme.

The $4 million Victorian scheme was announced in March 2022, with lawyer Rowena McDonald saying a similar scheme needed to be enacted in Tasmania immediately.

Laws came into effect in Tasmania April 2018 allowing people convicted homosexuality-related offences to have their convictions expunged, but Ms Haddad said that “wasn’t enough” and that it was time also to offer compensation.

If elected, Ms Haddad said Labor would introduce a redress scheme for people who had their convictions expunged – making Tasmania the first state in Australia to do so.

“It was one of the darkest periods of Tasmania’s history. I think it’s pretty hard for many people to understand these days that it wasn’t until 1997 that homosexuality was removed from the Criminal Code,” she said.

“I think it’s reasonable to expect some kind of financial compensation from policies of the government in the past that have caused enormous harm and shame to the people subjected to them.”

Rodney Croome, spokesperson for Equality Tasmania, said he welcomed the plan for financial redress, which was shared by the Greens, and called on the Liberal Party to make the same commitment.

Rodney Croome from Equality Tasmania.

“When gay and transgender Tasmanians were convicted under our former laws against homosexuality and cross-dressing, they faced jail, fined, court-ordered shock treatment, involuntary outing, loss of jobs and family, and exile from the state,” he said.

“For decades after their conviction, having a criminal record made it much harder for them to find employment and housing.

“Successive Tasmanian governments were directly responsible for these injustices, and financial redress is an important way to repair the damage.”

Labor hasn’t yet worked out how much the schemes would be worth, or how much people would be able to apply for, but would “work with the affected communities and establish a panel once in government” to determine the appropriate amounts.

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