The LDA Dilemma.

Writing to a Minister or parliamentarian is one of the many gifts we get from the priviledge of living in a democracy. Our elected leaders need to be accessible to their voters and to actually answer the valid questions or requests presented by their constituents. Adoptee advocates ask that the WA government cease parroting empty platitudes and engage in real dialogue with forced adoption survivors and their advocates.

I have yet to receive a reply from the Minister.

Danae Witherow, Jen McRae and Bernadette Richards speak to Life Matters ABC Radio National, August 18th, 2025.

Benevolent paternalism was central to forced adoption policies and practices of closed adoption and the hangover experiences of LDA.

We call on the Western Australian Government to listen to adopted people and endorse Recommendation 36 from the 2024 inquiry.

There is always a solution for any problem. And here is ours.

GSASG have created a draft framework and process which is trauma informed and centers the needs of the adopted person.

Imparting difficult news is not a new phenomenon. Using a similar process from the emergency services sector our proposed pathway incorporates similar principles.

Deb Wilde

Here in Western Australia, Danae has led the push for the rights of Late Discovery Adoptee’s since that fateful day a family member weaponsied her life story.

I ask that the Minister for Communities, Department Senior Executives and the policy officers spend just 30 minutes with Danae and listen and importantly learn from her lived experience.

Adoptee rights are human rights and the time for action is here.

After decades of being stonewalled, gaslit and being told we should be ‘grateful’ for being removed from our mother, father and famillies- adopted people have found their voice and we have quite a lot to say.

Read the Op-Ed by Jennifer McRae

Despite decades of advocacy by survivors, Australia is only just coming to terms with the human rights violations of the forced adoption era.

The newborns who were wrongfully removed are now adults. We are known as adoptees/adopted people/adopted adults. Many from our community are bravely coming forward to advocate for the restoration of their human rights.

Below is a powerful testimony from LDA Grant Ashman with ABC Perth radio (2024).

Late Discovery is a burden adopted people are expected to shoulder alone. Government support is limited and not coordinated. Access to crisis level intervention does not exist. And if you live outside Perth there is nothing.

Thanks to the dozens of survivors who wrote a submission to the 2023-24 WA inquiry the government can no longer claim they did not know LDA was such a significant issue in society.

Agreeing to the implementation of recommendation 36 would go a long way in preventing the harm Peter experienced.

GSASG’s -Danae, Deb and Jen dive into the lived experience of LDA, why all people have a right to know who they are and what is next for the Yesto#36 campaign

Finding out at 12 is too late.

Amelia speaks to two adoptees – Jennifer McRae and Danae Witherow – about how being taken from their mothers has affected their lives, and their push for an inquiry in Western Australia. Shakira Ramsdell explains what's happening in Victoria, the one state in the process of setting up a redress scheme. Description goes here

The veto system was developed in the 1990’s to appease those parties who were not pleased with the end to closed adoption.

Some WA mothers have described the veto legislation as a political trade off they were presured to accept in order for their reunion reforms to proceed.

Thousands of Australian adopted people remain bound by this archaic legislation. In their response to the WA inquiry the government has agreed to end all remaining Veto’s.