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Adoption & fostering

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Carissa Smith was adopted from South Korea as a baby and has embarked on a search for her birth parents.

‘Difficult questions’ need answering: Adoptees hope for closure with probe into South Korean program

A former magistrate will the lead the country’s first-ever probe into alleged failures in the Australian-South Korean adoption program.

  • Lisa Visentin

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Dr Jo-Ann Sparrow, president of Jigsaw Queensland, said the inquiry heard of adoption “largely as a policy mechanism rather than as a lived experience that continues across an entire lifespan”.

Adoption fix for child safety needs ‘robust safeguards’, service says

Queensland’s major forced adoption service provider has warned the government it must consider lifelong consequences as it forms its response to a major inquiry.

  • Matt Dennien
Steven doesn’t understand why so many adults failed to spare his siblings from alleged abuse.

Marcus told caseworkers about his foster father’s abuse. A court must decide if their failure to act amounts to damages

Marcus alleged he was raped and neglected by the foster family the government chose to care for him. His compensation claim may be a test case for the courts.

  • Amber Schultz
My friend’s search for her mother was indeed a search for something more.

‘Was I ever loved?’ The question that stopped Dianne in her tracks, and the answer

After nearly dying, the author joined a quest to find her friend’s birth mother. She was shocked at what she learnt.

  • Dianne Yarwood
Forced adoption was common in the 1970s.

Drugged and terrified, I heard small cries in the distance. The nurses had taken my baby away

Thousands of unmarried women and girls in Australia had their children forcibly taken from them and adopted out. One woman tells her story.

  • Anonymous
Kathy Hodgson’s long battle to have her true identify recognised on her birth certificate has come to an end.

It’s been 20 years since Kathy found out her real identity. Now she finally has the proof

A shocking revelation and a DNA test led to a long struggle to get officialdom to catch up with the truth.

  • Claire Moodie
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Sarah Cruickshank, former chief of staff to Gladys Berejiklian.

Queensland back-tracks on cutting access to adoption information

The government admitted “deficiencies” in its approach had caused distress to families split up by forced adoptions who wanted to reconnect.

  • Matt Dennien
Dr Jo-Ann Sparrow, president of Jigsaw Queensland, outside the former births, deaths and marriages registry in Brisbane’s CBD.

Ministers ‘deflecting responsibility’ over forced adoption detail fix

Unexpected changes curbing the reconnection of families split under historical child removals frustrated support services. Two months later, so has the state’s response.

  • Matt Dennien
Sara has provided foster care for 400 children in more than 18 years but feels the government has low regard for foster carers.

‘I’ve never felt so disregarded’: After 18 years of foster caring, one decision made Sara quit

Sara has opened her home to hundreds of vulnerable children over 18 years, a state government decision has left her unable to go on.

  • Wendy Tuohy
Rows of babies waiting for overseas adoption in 1984 at the Angel Babies’ Home orphanage in South Korea.

South Korea’s president has apologised to adoptees. They say his words are not enough

Lee Jae Myung has offered a “heartfelt apology and words of comfort”, but Australian adoptees say it must be matched by action to help families reunite.

  • Lisa Visentin