home | news l

Aboriginal wage claims need evidence

15 June 2004 - Aborigines seeking to claim back wages and payments stolen or lost by the NSW government could miss out if they don't have documentary evidence.

This is despite the government having lost or destroyed their records.

The prospect has outraged claimants, one of whom has said he oversaw the burning of hundreds of records of monies held in trust for Aborigines during his time working for the Child Welfare Board in the 1970s.

A NSW government panel investigating the disappearance of thousands of Aboriginal trust funds said while oral evidence would be considered, payments would be "hard to justify" if there was no documentation to back it up.

The approach is in stark contrast to a leaked 2001 cabinet minute from former community services minister Faye Lo Po that urged the government to give claimants the benefit of the doubt because its own handling of documents had been so poor.

But panel chair Brian Gilligan, a former national parks bureaucrat, said it would be "challenging" to verify claims in situations where there was no documentation.

"It will be hard to justify something if there's absolutely nothing but oral evidence, where you've just got someone putting their hand up," he said.

"That's the sort of thing that starts to make me nervous."

The approach came despite frequent complaints by Premier Bob Carr and Mr Gilligan himself that the records were extremely sketchy.

The panel's own information sheet notes that there are lists of people and amounts placed in trust for only four of the 70 years in question, as well as a list of unclaimed monies from 1970.

Les Ridgeway, who has spent years seeking his entitlements, said he oversaw the destruction of payment receipt books, child endowment records and other evidence of monies owed when he was a manager at the Child Welfare Board.

As a former manager of the Aboriginal Welfare Board, Mr Ridgeway said he was ordered to destroy the documents by the hierarchy of what later became the Department of Community Services.

"It (the order) came from higher up. It was sent around to all district officers (that they were) to destroy all these documents held in former managers' offices," he told AAP.

"I witnessed the burning of all this documentation."

Mr Ridgeway said it was hypocritical for the government which sanctioned the destroying of the documents to then demand that claimants produce such evidence.

He also questioned Mr Gilligan's credentials to lead the three-person panel, of which he is the only non-Aboriginal member.

"What would he know about Aboriginal history? Who's he to dictate to black people?" he said.

"It's quite obvious they (the government) don't trust the others (panel members)."

Mr Gilligan said while oral evidence would be given more credence if there was some documentary evidence to support it, it also would be considered in isolation.

However he said claims where there was clear documentary evidence would be the first to be paid out.

Source: NineMSN

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

|| click to go to the top of this page