home | news l

Aboriginal community rejects wages compo offer

By Nadine Rofail

24 May 2004 - Aboriginal communities were unlikely to accept the Queensland government's compensation offer for wages and savings withheld by previous state policies, an indigenous leader said today.

Aboriginal Coordinating Council chairman Thomas Hudson said the Yarrabah community, near Cairns, had voted to reject the offer of $55 million for 16,000 indigenous Queenslanders.

Mr Hudson said it was the first council to officially vote on the offer, which would amount to about $4,000 per person.

"No-one has yet accepted the offer and I don't think any community will," Mr Hudson said.

"This is chicken feed - some of these people have had life earnings denied to them."

The Queensland Government controlled labour, wages and savings of most Aborigines until 1972, with as much as 70 per cent being compulsorily deducted from wages to be placed in two funds.

One of the funds was the Queensland Aboriginals Account, established in 1897 as a giant savings account and administered by the state until 1966.

The other was the Aborigines Welfare Fund created in 1943, into which Aborigines paid a 10 per cent levy on wages after income tax to support those living on government missions.

The savings account was closed in the early 1990s, while the welfare fund ceased trading in 1993 after an investigation estimated it should be worth $200 million but instead had less than $3 million.

"I think it (the offer) is going against the process of reconciliation," Mr Hudson said.

"The government should be thinking about it a bit more."

Mr Hudson said other Aboriginal communities would decide whether to pursue with Yarrabah's legal action against the state government.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy Minister Judy Spence said she was disappointed Yarrabah had rejected the offer.

"I think it's premature for any Aboriginal community or individual to reject the government's $55 million offer," Ms Spence said.

Ms Spence said the government had funded legal representatives to visit Aboriginal communities and fully explain their proposal.

Aborigines may walk away from compensation offer

June 6 - Queensland Aborigines have threatened to walk away from the state government's offer of more than $55 million in compensation for wages and savings withheld by the state in the last century.

Aboriginal Coordinating Council (ACC) deputy chairman and Palm Island councillor Alfred Lacey said today the government needed to increase its offer.

Last month, Premier Peter Beattie offered to pay up to 16,400 Aboriginal Queenslanders as much as $4,000 compensation as part of the deal.

The offer followed the routine withholding of Aboriginal wages and savings by the Queensland government from the 1890s to 1972, a practice which was formalised in 1943 with the establishment of the Aborigines Welfare Fund.

The government wants a formal response from Aboriginal groups by August 9, but Mr Lacey said today that should not be forthcoming.

He said while the ACC would go along with whatever decision Aboriginal people made, the government needed to lift its offer to include not only withheld wages and savings but also former child endowment payments that were placed in state coffers.

"We made it quite clear at our executive meeting in Cherbourg that the ACC will walk away from the table of the negotiation team - we've endorsed the fact that we will do that until there's a proper and just settlement by the Queensland government," Mr Lacey told ABC radio.

"The government needs to put all the facts and the records on the table so the wider public of Queensland need to see what type of nonsense went on back in those days and come to a proper conclusion in regards to that issue.

"People want to shut us up, shove $4,000 or $2,000 in our face and say bye bye and that's it."

But Queensland Aboriginal Policy Minister Judy Spence said the offer on the table was the only one that would be made.

"The premier and I made it very clear that the offer that we've put to Aboriginal and Islander people is the only offer on the table," Ms Spence said.

"If this offer is rejected then the alternative is to go to court and fight out these issues in court."

Ms Spence said this would mean spending a lot of money on a legal battle.

Source: The Age

Rally ends with claims Govt using emotional blackmail

August 4 2002 - Aboriginal groups have accused the Queensland Government of using emotional blackmail to try to pressure them into accepting a compensation offer for decades of withheld wages.

About 100 people rallied in Brisbane yesterday, concerned that those affected were being pressured into accepting the deal before next week's deadline.

Ruth Hegarty from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Advisory Board says suggestions by the Government that the offer should be accepted before more people die without their money are hurtful.

"The old people are going to die anyway, we're dying all the time, and we're dying without the $4,000," she said.

"This is not going to make dying any easier for any one of us, even if you take the $4,000, because your funeral costs will blow out much further than that and the young people will still be left with a debt."

Source: ABC News

Beattie wins indigenous support

August 09, 2002 - NINETY-SIX per cent of eligible indigenous Queenslanders have indicated they were willing to accept the Beattie Government's $55.4 million reparations offer for lost wages and savings.

Premier Peter Beattie said today the results of a report compiled by the Queensland Aboriginal and Islander Legal Service Secretariat (QAILSS) found "overwhelming" support for the plan.

"What it basically said is that 96 per cent of potentially eligible people would accept the offer," Mr Beattie said.

"Acceptance of the Government's offer will prevent a lot of pain and prevent in many cases expensive and drawn out legal battles.

"This is a circuit breaker, it's a revolution and it brings about the reconciliation we want."

Indigenous Queenslanders have campaigned for decades to receive money which previous state governments had forcibly taken out of their wages and which they claim they have not received back.

The offer will involve individual payments of $2,000 or $4000 depending on age and includes a written apology.

Indigenous people have also suggested the $8.6 million held in another government account known as the Aborigines Welfare Fund should be spent on scholarships and developing historical collections.

The report detailed anger among indigenous people over the amount of the offer.

There were also high profile Aborigines who had followed QAILSS teams visiting indigenous communities voicing their opposition to the size of the reparations.

"We know that there are people who are critical of what we've sought to do and that criticism will no doubt continue after the release of this report," Mr Beattie said.

He said the Government has received legal advice that it could win any legal attempt by indigenous people to receive more money.

Those who accept the offer will not be able to sue.

The report will go to cabinet for consideration and the government will later make a formal offer to those who have proved that money was taken out of their wages.

Payments are expected to be made next year.

The $200,000 report found only around 3500 of the 16,400 potentially eligible people had signalled their support or dismissal of the offer up to Monday.

But Mr Beattie said since then QAILSS has received thousands of more indications of support.

ATSIC Commissioner for North Queensland Jenny Pryor has called for a fighting fund to be established to support those willing to seek more money in court.

"It's now time to look seriously at a test case on behalf of those who want to take up their rights but don't have the means to do so," she said.

"A fighting fund ought to be established to assist people to do that."

Source: news.com.au

Further information: stolen generations issues page - includes news index and external links

|| click to go to the top of this page