The Uniting Church in Australia was inaugurated in 1977, following the union of members of the Methodist Church, the Congregational Church and some congregations of the Presbyterian Church from all states and territories. A number of welfare programmes linked with the member churches are now connected with the Uniting Church in Australia.
First known as the Good Shepherd Sisters, the Sisters of the Good Samaritan were founded by Archbishop Polding in the House of the Good Shepherd, Pitt Street, Sydney on 2 February 1857. They were the first institute of religious women founded in Australia. In 1866 the Sisters changed their name to the Congregation of the…
The St Vincent de Paul Society is a Catholic religious organisation with a volunteer base who work to assist people in need and counter social injustice. The Society of St Vincent de Paul established its first conference in Australia in Melbourne in 1854. It then established conferences across the country, with one in New South…
Child Endowment was a non-means tested, universal allowance introduced by the Commonwealth government in 1941. The Child Endowment Act 1941 provided that a sum of 5 shillings per week, for each child after the first under the age of 16 years, be paid directly to the mother. Under the original legislation, child endowment could not…
On 22 October 2018, the Prime Minister, the Hon Scott Morrison MP, apologised to victims and survivors of institutional child sexual abuse on behalf of the Australian Government, and all Australians. The Prime Minister apologised for the appalling endured by survivors of institutional child sexual abuse, and acknowledged the longlasting effects of this abuse. The…
The Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (FaHCSIA) was created in 2007 (formerly, it was known as the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs). FaHCSIA was the government department responsible for the Apology to Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants in November 2009. It also administered the Find and Connect…
The Freedom of Information Act 1982 is Commonwealth legislation giving the Australian community rights of access to information held by the Government of the Commonwealth (or the Government of Norfolk Island). The FOI Act regulates regulates access to documents created by the Federal Government (not by state or territory government agencies).
The Department of Social Services (DSS) came into being in September 2013. Previously, it was called the Department for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs (or FaHCSIA). Within DSS’s programs and services are the Find and Connect services for Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants, the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual…
The Privacy Act 1988 (Commonwealth) is an Australian law which regulates the handling of personal information about individuals. This includes the collection, use, storage and disclosure of personal information. In terms of access to records about an individual’s time in institutional ‘care’, the Commonwealth Privacy Act may be relevant to records held by a non-government…
Institutional care is a term that refers to the system of residential care for children, generally in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From around the 1940s, state and territory governments in Australia began to phase out the use of large institutions for children (such as orphanages and reformatories). Other models introduced from this time included…
Dec 18, 2024
Nov 15, 2024
