GO ON JENNY, NAME 10 CHILDREN

JENNY Macklin: name just 10 of those children you claim were stolen from their parents just for being Aboriginal.

Just 10, or stop repeating a dangerous myth.

Macklin is quitting politics, and yesterday told the ABC of her best times as a Labor MP and former deputy prime minister.

She praised especially the Rudd government’s apology to the “stolen generations”: “People wanted an acknowledgment of the truth: that children had been forcefully removed from their parents on the basis of race.” The truth?

The Human Rights Commission claims there were 100,000 “stolen” children, but each time a claim has been tested, in court or by me, the child turns out to have been sent to school or removed on the grounds of danger, not race

The Federal Court heard a huge test case in the Northern Territory involving two claimants picked from some 700 others, and ruled: “(The) evidence does not support a finding that there was any policy (in the NT) of removal of partAboriginal children such as that alleged.” One claimant had been saved from a bush camp when found with no close relatives looking after her. The other had been sent by his mum to school in Alice Springs.

In WA, Justice Janine Pritchard rejected claims that from 1958 to 1979 there had been an official program to steal children “pursuant to a policy of assimilation”. Seven children claiming compensation had in fact been taken to protect them physically.

In Victoria, a Stolen Generations Taskforce couldn’t find one truly stolen child, and admitted that in Victoria there’d been “no formal policy for removing children”.

In Tasmania, a Labor scheme has compensated some “stolen” children, but none of the four publicised cases seems to me of a child stolen just for being Aboriginal.

One, an activist, actually told the ABC she’d been “removed on the grounds of neglect”, adding: “In Tasmania there were no removal policies as such …”

Only in South Australia has anyone proved they were stolen, but not for being Aboriginal.

The Supreme Court found Bruce Trevorrow had been unlawfully and secretly removed from his hospital bed, but by a welfare worker convinced he’d been neglected and abandoned.

Moreover, the judge made clear that South Australia’s official policy had ruled out removing Aboriginal children unless in danger.

So name 10, Ms Macklin. Just 10.