THE Cook government should hold a Royal Commission into forced adoptions and a former matron should be stripped of her Queen’s honours, says a nurse who is planning a rally at WA Parliament next month.
Natasha Brown’s mother Kerry Webb was forced to put her first child up for adoption; Ms Brown says she now bears the weight of that trauma, but also of the other 250,000 Australian women and children who were impacted between 1939 and the early 1980s.
“It’s not exactly murder, but human trafficking is about as close as you’re going to get to it,” Ms Webb said.
“How else do you explain this away?
“What else would it be called: a gift… money changed hands.
“Imagine if someone came along and said ‘I like the look of him, can I buy him from you?’”
“Funny how it harkens back to slavery.”
Ms Brown says the protest is aimed at helping her mum and other victims get compensation.
“It’s gone on for too long.”
She says a royal commission is needed because a 2012 Commonwealth inquiry was “very hit and miss”.
“A Royal Commission gives a bit more weight behind investigating certain areas of government like the Department of Welfare (now WA’s Communities department).”
Compensation
Besides a royal commission, she also wants to know why it has taken the WA government so long to pay compensation given the 16 years since former WA premier Colin Barnett apologised.
Ms Brown has also called for Ngala Mothercraft and Training Centre matron Beryl Grant’s OBE and AO to be removed posthumously for her prominent role in forced adoptions.
In 2025, the Beryl Grant Community Centre in Albany was renamed after protests.
“She goes against everything I stand for as a nurse,” Ms Brown says.
“There’s an oath we take to do no harm.
“By the very nature of her selling those babies, it is a contradiction to what nursing stands for.”
While Victoria has established a redress scheme to provide compensation for victims, the WA government said in 2024 it was “under further consideration”.
“I think they won’t commit to anything if it is going to cost them,” Ms Brown said.
“We’re going to get a new racetrack, we’ve got a new rugby team; how many millions of dollars have gone towards those two things alone?”
Her mother believes the government is just waiting for the survivors to die.
“How long do you need to consider,” she asks.
Late discovery adoptee Danae Witherow described her experiences as “hell on Earth”.
“I had grown up in a family with grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins who all knew the truth,” Ms Witherow said.
“It’s the worst feeling in the world to realise that everybody you knew lied.”
She shares Ms Brown and Ms Webb’s frustrations over the government’s slow response to its 2024 Broken Bonds, Fracture Lives report.
“I’m not satisfied with anything the government has done,” Ms Witherow said.
Recommendations called for the Salvation Army, the Institute of Sisters of Mercy of Australia and Papua New Guinea (ISMAPNG), and Ngala to particpate in a redress scheme.
Spokespeople from the Salvation Army and Ngala told the Herald a redress scheme had to be decided by the state government.
ISMAPNG said in a media statement it had not been involved in arranged adoptions at any time in WA.
“As our sisters did not arrange adoptions, we do not intend to join any compensation scheme that is to be established for persons impacted by past forced adoption practices,” an ISMAPNG spokesperson said.
Ms Brown fears part of the slow response is to protect the names of people involved.
“The more people you bring in, it becomes bigger than Ben-Hur; that’s why they’re trying to keep it contained.”
“So many people were complicit in those days.
Many of the victims were also forced to take Stilbestrol, a drug used to suppress lactation.
However, its side effects included vaginal and cervical cancers, and complications for future offspring, who are given the label ‘DES daughters’.
by LOGEENTH RAO