News & Media Releases
Write to Your Local MP: Help Call for a Royal Commission into Adoption
One of the most powerful things our adoption community can do right now is contact local Members of Parliament and ask them to support a Royal Commission into adoption in Australia. MPs pay attention when constituents contact them directly - especially when multiple...
Urgent Call for a Royal Commission into Adoption and its lifelong impacts on Adoptees
Calling for a Royal Commission in Australia is not a procedural application - it is a political and strategic advocacy process. A Royal Commission is formally established by the Governor-General (or a state Governor), but only on the advice of government. In practice,...
ARA continues to call for a Royal Commission into adoption itself – past and present
The deep and ongoing harm to adopted people from adoption and adoption practices has never been investigated or examined on a national scale in Australia. The 2011-2012 Senate Inquiry into Forced Adoption was an inquiry into removal and trafficking practices only....
A Royal Commission into adoption itself – A National Reckoning is long overdue!
Today marks the 12th Anniversary of the National Apology for Forced Adoptions. 🎥 You can view a recording of the Apology HERE📄And download the words of the Apology HERE The apology was one of 20 Recommendations made by the Senate Committee on Community Affairs Only a...
The Lived Experience Of Adopted People Is Ignored
The lived experience of adopted people is ignored and adoption is still being promoted by powerful lobby groups. In the 2022 financial year there were only 167 child adoptions in Australia - 151 local adoptions, and 16 intercountry adoptions. (Australian Institute...
Still Waiting… Forced Adoption Apology – 10 Years On
On the 10th Anniversary of the Apology for Forced Adoptions in Australia, the announcement made on the 21st March 2023 by the Minister for Social Services, Amanda Rishworth MP is devastatingly inadequate. Most of the Recommendations agreed to 10 years ago were never...
Still Waiting… Forced Adoption Apology – 10 Years On (with table)
Adoptee Rights Australia was formed in 2018 in response to the lack of a national advocacy body for adopted people. The majority of adoptees in Australia would not have been adopted if it weren’t for coercive and illegal policies and practices. On the 10th Anniversary...
DIS-Integrated Identity, Birth Certificates & Adoption
Response to the Guardian article published today 7th August 2022: “My birth* mother was not allowed to name her baby. But the name she gave me in her heart is real”. While it’s both welcome and surprising to see an adopted person speaking about the reality of...
Call to remove the Statute of Limitations on Adoption Crimes
Adoptee Rights Australia (ARA) Inc. and their membership support the mothers of this nation in their decades long quest to achieve justice. We are aligned in their rightful request that all state jurisdictions remove the statute of limitations which prevent adopted...
Invisibility of Adopted Adults in the Government Response to the Victorian Forced Adoptions Inquiry
Adopted People - Invisible Australians Response by Adoptee Rights Australia (ARA) Inc. to the Government Response to the Recommendations of the Inquiry into Historical Forced Adoption in Victoria. We congratulate the mothers who have fought long and hard for...
Victorian Inquiry – Many Recommendations Long Overdue – More Needed for Adoptees
President of Adoptee Rights Australia (ARA) Inc., Peter Capomolla Moore, says: “ARA welcomes many of the 56 recommendations of the Victorian Inquiry into responses to historical forced adoption in Victoria and we thank the Committee and Secretariat for the empathetic...
More Exclusionary Reporting on Adoption – ABC article on Queensland Bill
Reporting on the outcome of the Bill aiming to prioritise adoption over long-term care arrangements and fast-track adoption in Queensland in the ABC article: "Contentious bill over child adoptions passes in Queensland Parliament despite concerns" by Emilie Gramenz on...
Royal Commission into Adoption: Seeking Member Input
We've variously called for a Royal Commission (in ARA's submission to the Vic Inquiry) and an Inquiry (in an ARA media release). We need to work on calling for something that best suits balanced with prospect of success. Get involved - write to your own local Member...
Adoption outcomes unknown – AIHW submission
An excerpt from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) submission to the Inquiry into Responses to Historical Forced Adoptions in Victoria - Reporting date due 21st July 2021: "The AIHW is unable to provide information on how adoptees and adoptive...
Integrated Birth Certificates – A Slap in the Face for many Adoptees?
National Adoptee Peak Body, Adoptee Rights Australia (ARA) Inc has rejected the claim that NSW integrated birth certificate reforms solve the issues around birth certificates for adopted people. President of ARA, Peter Capomolla Moore, says: “The reforms in NSW are a...
National Peak Adoptee Organisation calls for an inquiry into adoption – not the promotion of adoption from care.
National Peak Body for adoptees, Adoptee Rights Australia (ARA) Inc. does not support the current push towards increasing adoptions by some state governments and wealthy, self-interested lobby groups. Instead, ARA Inc. is calling for an inquiry into the controversial...
What Is A Royal Commission into Adoption?
Summary, (below) as an introduction to what a Royal Commission is; so everyone is on the same page and we can unpack the issue/s (controversy). “Giving a United VOICE to the lived experience of Australian Adoptees” ARA Inc. Round Table- discussing Proposed RC (1 hour...
Adoption: In The Best Interests Of Who?
What happened to those 250,000 babies? What has happened to those 250,000 adults? ARA Inc. Is looking for input, expertise and energy to help bring about a much needed Royal Commission into the impact and long term outcomes of Adoption in Australia. Giving a United...
Adult adoptees silenced in Parliamentary Adoption Inquiry
The Commonwealth government is years behind Europe in adoption research and practices and they are silencing adoptees in Australia who have lived experience of adoption, according to Adoption Rights Australia (ARA). Head of the Parliamentary Committee Inquiry on Local...
Media Release: Launching Adoptee Rights Australia Inc. (ARA)
ARA aims to fulfil the urgent need in Australia for a national adoptee representative peak body run by, and for, adopted people. To date, other stakeholders’ views have been prioritised and ARA was formed in response to a longstanding need to have our voices heard in...