What were the Bringing Them Home recommendations?

The Bringing Them Home report made 54 recommendations across six main themes for acknowledging and addressing the harm caused by the Stolen Generations removal policies. The recommendations were aimed at federal, state, and territory governments, the churches that had run missions, and the Australian community generally.

Acknowledgement and apology were central. Recommendation 5a called for formal parliamentary apologies from all Australian governments. Recommendation 5b called for individual official apologies from agencies and religious institutions responsible for removal. State and territory apologies were delivered between 1997 and 2001. The federal Apology came on 13 February 2008 from Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Various church and institutional apologies were delivered across the same period.

Reparations were the most contested recommendations. Recommendations 14 to 17 called for monetary compensation, support services, and reparation schemes for survivors and their families. The Howard government rejected a national compensation scheme. The Tasmania Stolen Generations of Aboriginal Children Act 2006 established the first state compensation scheme. The Western Australian Redress Scheme (2008), the South Australian Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme (2015), the NSW Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme (2017), and the federal Territories Stolen Generations Redress Scheme (announced 2021 for survivors removed in the Northern Territory and ACT) have provided partial reparations. The Healing Foundation, established in 2009, delivers community-based healing programmes.

Other recommendations covered records and family reunion (improved access to records and support for family reunion services through the Link-Up programme), health and counselling (targeted services through Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services and the Healing Foundation), education (Stolen Generations history included in school curricula nationally), and legal reform (child welfare and family law system changes including Aboriginal Child Placement Principles). Most recommendations have been at least partially implemented, although campaigners argue that more comprehensive compensation, family reunion support, and specialist healing services are still needed. The 25th anniversary commemoration of the report in 2022 led to renewed calls for fuller implementation of the recommendations under the Albanese government.