Following is a response I got from Terese Edwards, Chief Executive Officer – National Council of Single Mothers & their Children – to my post re refugees so despairing of their situation they were asking for their unborn children to be later adopted to save them from living under such cruelty:
“I would also like to add my complete dismay that the Government has announced that young Australians without work and studying will have a 6 month wait before being eligible for any assistance (Newstart). They will then encounter 6 months of income support & 6 months without (subject to passage of legislation). This includes women who are pregnant (there is no exemption)”
08 8354 3856 – www.ncsmc.org.au – Blog
…………………………………………
What Terese Edwards is describing above is nothing less than the reintroduction of Forced Adoption. During the 20th century so many single mothers were preyed upon and told they were unfit to rear their infants because their was no welfare available and it would be wrong to rear a child in poverty (even though we now know there were both economical and other measures of practical assistance available but were withheld because people in power wanted babies). The lack of any supports was one of the means used to shame mothers into compliance. Now it seems the government is purposely creating a situation where there really will be no way for a poor mother on her own to keep her infant as there will be no financial assistance whatsoever – for Abbott and his government to create the social environment where a mother is forced to adopt out her child because of poverty is a crime against humanity. One must also ask whatever happened to the Australian government’s promise that Forced Adoption would never be repeated again in this country? It seems it has gone the way of all of the other Abbott promises along with any compassion for the vulnerable. Being poor is equated with moral failure and being an “ineffective” citizen – therefor not deserving of support, respect or human dignity.
The Lie of the Budget Crisis
Most people are now aware that there is NO BUDGET CRISIS – as explained by a Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitz, on the ABC program: Q & A. –
You can read about the budget crisis lie and Stiglitz’s scathing criticism of the Australian government’s absurd ideological driven agenda and its stupidity for wanting to emulate the USA’s race to the bottom in the following article:
Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz says Abbott government budget changes are ‘a crime’
Anyone who has read any of my articles on this Blog is aware of my scathing criticism of replicating the USA’s failed child welfare industry and in particular applying its Adoption model in Australia. I do not see any value in emulating legislation and social policy that has caused such pain and devastation to US families, here.
So what is Abbott’s real reason for misleading the Australian people?
The USA welfare system is all about creating an underclass. An underclass then becomes a resource to be plundered by the powerful. For instance in the US there are thousands of poor, unwed mothers who loose their babies every year – because of their poverty. In the US adoption is an institution that has a cult like status, promoted by movie starts and religious crack pots, it is also a multi billion dollar industry and many adopters want to see it replicated here. The powerful and rich who benefit from such an unjust system are happy to see the US model adopted here. But unfortunately for them, while single mothers here are well supported the elite cannot get their hands on their babies, take away the support systems and it will be a very different story.
Even though some people still believe the budge crisis lie they are still concerned about the inequality that is inherent in Abbott’s budget and ask reasonably – if there is a budget crisis why aren’t multi-national corporations and the mining industry not expected to pay more? Why aren’t we following a country like Norway that believes that all finite resources belong to the people. Not to one individual – say like Gina Rhinehart. Once those resources are gone that’s it! So those individuals and companies who are making billions off the back of the nation’s future are expected to pay a resources tax which then goes into the education and medical system. It pays for research and development and the building up of the country’s manufacturing industry. It is used to support the most vulnerable – like providing an adequate social safety net for young, single mothers and their children http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/feb/19/mining-tax-its-time-for-all-australians-to-realise-they-are-being-ripped-off
Norway is not giving their resources away to the mega rich and impoverishing the poor by getting rid of its welfare net, because it is not intending to create an underclass. And that is why asking reasonable questions will not elicit a reasonable answer. Creating an underclass is not about reasonableness it is about purposely creating an unequal society – it is driven by an ideology, not logic. Stating the budget is unfair and arguing for more fairness won’t work. The budget is meant to be unfair, the agenda IS to create an unequal society. Abbott is accomplishing what he intends.
Why would any thinking person want to follow the US?
The US has one of the most inefficient and expensive medical systems in the world. The present education system here is one to be envied the US’s is a disaster. The inequality is appalling and the number of young women who “give up” their babies because of poverty is outrageous. Why then would Abbot and the Liberals want to recreate such inequality here? Amongst other things I believe the Libs’ agenda is to create a cheap and compliant labour force? Expand our military with impoverished youths. Ensure an easily manipulated society because it is divided by class warfare. Keep taxes low for the wealthy – particularly by cutting welfare. And to remove the infants and children of those the elite deem inferior or as Abbott calls them “parents who are not efficient” and place them with those the neo-conservatives think are (efficient: code for financially secure). But as far as I am concerned one of the most inhumane characteristics of the unequal society Abbot is creating is that the poor are more likely to have their children removed and placed with selected strangers.
The New Child Removalist Campaign has already started
So far a vicious campaign to demonize mothers has focused on the very young, poor, substance dependent, homeless or victims of domestic violence. Laws have been altered to make it easier for governments around Australia to forcibly remove their newborns, irrespective of the trauma caused to mother and child. Who are the key promoters for freeing up adoption and promoting forced adoption? Adoptive parents. Who are advising the government on adoption policy? Rich and powerful adoptive parents, in particular movie stars. It seems the government has no concerns about conflicts of interest, and certainly no embarrassment about toadding up to the rich and famous.
The Movie Stars
Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness both attended the birth of their adopted children. They did not adopt orphans. Neither did they adopt from overseas as both were living in the US where the adoptions took place. Both their adopted children had mothers who were poor and vulnerable – would those mothers have lost their children if they were not part of the great American underclass? No – if the US did not have such a large underclass there would not be in excess of 5,000 newborns adopted annually. Having an underclass creates the environment for extreme exploitation, and the worst sort of exploitation is forcibly taken someone’s newborn or making the economic and social environment so unbearable that just like the despairing refugees, mothers think they must give up their infant to save it.
It is the poor who loose their children to the rich, and it is the most vulnerable whose newborns supply those comparatively wealthy couples and individuals who cannot have their own children.
I was astounded that Julia Bishop, Foreign Affairs Minister, criticized Leonardo Di Caprio for daring to comment on the state of the Barrier Reef. How dare, she cried, that an American actor offer an opinion, he is not a marine biologist, Bishop snapped, and therefore has no right to comment. The hypocrisy of the Liberal Government is mind boggling. Abbott and Bishop both wined and dined Hugh Jackman and Deborra-lee Furness at Kirribilli House, November 2013. Not only were they fawned over, but these particular movie stars were giving so much credence that social policy and law changes have been enacted on their advice. What credentials give Furness and Jackman’s the right to influence Australian legislation and social policy on something as serious as the welfare of babies and their families? Nothing, I would suggest, but their own self interest. Furness claimed, when attending Kirribilli House with various politicians and high flying Australians, that she wanted a “champion” to make it easier and cheaper for people like her to adopt. Well now we have a Prime Minister that has stated that making adoption quicker, easier and cheaper has become a personal goal. He placed so much importance on making more children available for adopters that he gave the issue top priority and placed it on the agenda for the COAG meeting: – the annual meeting of all State Premiers, First Ministers and the Prime Minister.
And Julia Bishop attacked Di Caprio for only making the comment that the Reef had deteriorated since he dived there a decade ago!
Adoption which is based on the exploitation of the poor and the vulnerable certainly fits into the Liberal’s tea party agenda. Abbott’s statement that “parents who are ineffective” should not be allowed to rear their own children belongs back in Germany circa 1940. Furness and Jackman have spearheaded the pro adoption lobby in Australia since 2007 and laws and social policy have been amended or introduced to facilitate them and their friends. Two movie stars with no other credentials other than they have benefited from adoption. There is no budget crisis just an extreme right wing – predominately white male, Christian government that, unfortunately for us, is now in charge of Australia. As former Labor Prime Minister Paul Keating remarked when it was suggested Abbott would be elected as Prime Minister: “God help us all”!
