home | news l

Report calls for restitution of unpaid Indigenous wages

By Donna Field

7 December 2006 - MARK COLVIN: It's been likened to slave labour, the story of the Aboriginal and Islander Australians who were employed under protection acts throughout the 19th and much of the 20th century, for little or no pay.

Today those workers received recognition, when a Senate Committee delivered its report entitled Unfinished Business - Indigenous Stolen Wages.

The report has delivered wide-ranging recommendations, but the message is clear, that the Commonwealth and State Governments should urgently set up fair compensation schemes.

Donna Field reports.

DONNA FIELD: Charmaine Smith is a lawyer who's worked with Indigenous people seeking compensation for stolen wages in New South Wales.

Her work is motivated by her own family history on a mission in South Australia.

CHARMAINE SMITH: And people like my grandparents and my great-grandparents, they worked for decades on this mission and did not receive an adequate wage.

Sometimes their wage was suspended or reduced or they were given rations instead of wages and it has contributed to the poverty, I mean, that exists today.

DONNA FIELD: Charmaine Smith, along with others seeking justice for their families, was in the Senate today as the report was tabled.

MARISE PAYNE: The commitment has received compelling evidence that governments systematically withheld and mismanaged Indigenous wages and entitlements over decades.

In addition, there is evidence of Indigenous people being underpaid or not paid at all for their work.

DONNA FIELD: The Chairwoman of the Stolen Wages Senate Inquiry, Senator Marise Payne.

She says the States and Commonwealth need to address the past injustice as a matter of urgency.

MARISE PAYNE: Indigenous Australians have been seriously disadvantaged by the control of their employment and wages. Many of those affected by previous government control are now elderly and in poor health.

It is imperative that governments take immediate action to address these injustices. In fact, Mr Acting Deputy President, we go so far as to say it would be an abrogation of moral responsibility to delay any further.

DONNA FIELD: Already Queensland and New South Wales have set up compensation schemes.

New South Wales' scheme is being heralded as the model that should be followed as it allows oral, as well as documentary evidence to be considered in the claim process. It also allows for claims on behalf of relatives who have died.

But Queensland's scheme has come in for heavy criticism, with the Committee recommending it be replaced with a fairer system.

Committee member, Liberal Senator George Brandis, has described the practice as a scandalous injustice and says Queensland's efforts at compensation are furthering the pain.

GEORGE BRANDIS: This is not a question of Aboriginal welfare, of Aboriginal people asking for a fair go, it is a question of property rights.

At its simplest, these people are saying to the Government, "You held our money in trust funds. You have never paid it to us, the beneficiaries, hand it over."

The Queensland Government has met this response with an insultingly low offer.

DONNA FIELD: Queensland has capped the amount that people can claim at a maximum of $4,000

Queenslander Yvonne Butler told her story to the inquiry. She worked on a cattle property in North Queensland under the Protection Act until she ran away at 16.

She hasn't taken the State compensation offer, saying it's an insult. She says the consequences of that time have been far-reaching for her people.

YVONNE BUTLER: Poverty. Every day was a struggle. Survival, you know, I was hospitalised for two years for malnutrition, and the Senate inquiry received those medical documents from me.

MARK COLVIN: Yvonne Butler ending that report from Donna Field.

Source ABC

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