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Unions back workers over Stolen Wages

20 January 2003 - National Tertiary Education Union Queensland Division - Media Release - An online petition, critical of the Queensland Government¹s handling of the stolen wages issue, will be launched tomorrow at the Queensland Council of Unions.

The petition, posted a week ago under the sponsorship of Member for South Brisbane Anna Bligh, has already drawn well over 100 signatures.

It calls on the Government to resume negotiations with relevant Indigenous representatives to formulate a proper consultative process and outcome with the Queensland Indigenous peoples. The petitioners assert that the process adopted by the Government "offers neither dignity nor closure" for those affected by the stolen wages issue.

Principal Petitioner and NTEU Queensland Secretary Howard Guille said it was important for the Government to realise the issue was still well and truly alive.

"And that counts for both the Aboriginal community and any of our other workers who may well have concerns about the non-payment of wages and the consultation processes that follow," he said.

MEDIA CONFERENCE:

When: 9.30am, Tuesday 21 January, 2003
Where: Level 2, TLC Building, 16 Peel St, South Brisbane
Who: Principal Petitioner & NTEU Qld Secretary Howard Guille
Aboriginal Coordinating Council Deputy Chair Alfred Lacey
Aunty Ruth Hegarty
Historian Dr Ros Kidd

Petition webpage and wording:

http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Petitions/cgi-bin/Petitions.cgi?Action=1

Subject: Stolen Wages
Eligibility: Queensland Citizens
Principal Petitioner: Howard Guille, National Tertiary Education Union

TO: The Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland

Queensland residents draw to the attention of the House the inadequacy of both the outcomes and process for the Queensland government Reparations Offer for Aboriginal Wages and Savings. Your petitioners believe the amounts offered to individuals bear no relation to what people earned or had stolen during the periods of control and enforced labour under the various Protection Acts throughout the past century. Your petitioners also believe the process via which this offer was made was flawed, as was admitted by the Honourable Minister Judy Spence after the decision was made to proceed with the current offer. While it is understood the government¹s intention was to make the offer "in the spirit of reconciliation", your petitioners wish it to be noted that the offer has not been received in the same spirit, regardless of how many may be forced through circumstance to accept it.

As the culmination of a struggle lasting more than 100 years your petitioners believe the offer as it now stands and the process through which it was arrived at offers neither dignity nor closure for the people, families and communities most affected by wages and savings practices and policies under the Protection Acts. The Queensland and Australian economies benefited greatly from the enforced labour of Aboriginal people and your petitioners therefore request that the State re-enter negotiations with relevant Indigenous representatives and bodies to formulate a proper consultation process and outcome with the Queensland Indigenous peoples on their terms.

Source: National Tertiary Education Union

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

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