Bringing-Them-Home-Report-Web

Distressing information, denigratory languageFor forcibly removed people and their families the information recorded about themby government agencies is almost certain to raise painful memories and their files willalmost certainly contain information that will cause pain if not trauma and despair.There’s letters written there in my handwriting and I go berserk, I can’t handle it. I can’tgo near them because I see my handwritten letters there as a little kid. You know, ‘May Isee my brothers and sisters? I haven’t seen them for a long time. They’re dear to my heart’.‘Do you know where my mum is? Can I please see my dad?’ There’s letters written back bythem that my behaviour didn’t warrant visits. There’s letters there saying that if I didn’timprove my behaviour that I would not be able to be with my brothers and sisters and thatI would never see my parents again.Confidential evidence 284, South Australia.… people experience different emotions, ranging from the excitement of locating a missingfamily member to outrage and distress in relation to what has been recorded on a personal file.For many clients, the records remind them of incidents in their lives that they would prefer toforget and they are often dismayed to find that intimate details of their private lives were recordedon government files (Qld Government interim submission page 69).The files often contain very minimal or inaccurate information, entries may be written in a toneand style that is very disturbing and offensive to the person concerned, and content may bedifficult to understand and interpret (SA Government interim submission page 23).We’ve got Mum’s records from the department. Mum was in the home when she was about8 or 9. She didn’t get released until she was 17. I was expecting something like a thick book.She only got about, I’d say, maybe 20 pages …Confidential evidence 143, Victoria.There are a lot of stories in the files that have been written about me from when I was indifferent stations working … And the bad things they said about me in the past from thesettlement wasn’t true. There are a lot of untrue things about me on the files. I have criedabout the lies on those files. Things that are lies about me, things I was never told about, areon those files.Confidential submission 110, Queensland.Two issues clearly arise. The first is that of deleting false information. The second isthat of support and counselling for people before, during and after the file is read.People may be entitled to write a statement correcting false information and have thestatement put on their file. However no information, even false information, can orshould be deleted. There is much value in retaining even false information, as well as