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Stolen wages fund should be used for health care: Aboriginal elder

Reporter: James Kelly

10 October 2007 - A prominent Aboriginal leader says the Queensland Government should dip into the stolen wages compensation fund to provide free health care to Indigenous people in need.

Transcript
TONY JONES, PRESENTER: The Queensland Government has been advised to dip into its stolen wages compensation fund to provide free private health care to Indigenous people in need.

A prominent Aboriginal leader says it's a simple solution to a dire social problem.

James Kelly reports.

JAMES KELLY, REPORTER: This is the blueprint which the State Government has been urged to consider.

Co-author Leslie Williams says the scheme would give about 5,500 indigenous Queenslanders the long-term help they desperately need.

LESLIE WILLIAMS, ELDER: It's targeting people who are born from the 1900s, early 1900s, right through to the 1956. That's, they're the people who had their lives totally controlled, every aspect of their lives controlled including the money that they worked for.

JAMES KELLY: The proposal uses the $35.8 million which remains unclaimed from the State Government's stolen wages fund.

The money would go into a trust account and be made available to any eligible recipient who needs health care, treating diseases like diabetes and cancer.

LESLIE WILLIAMS: That's giving them quality of life and they're sustaining their lives longer.

JAMES KELLY: When an eligible person dies, $3,500 will be allocated for funeral expenses.

The Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Lindy Nelson- Carr, has welcomed the plan but say there's are already two other options on the table.

LINDY NELSON-CARR, QUEENSLAND MINISTER FOR MULTICULTURALISM:
The first option of course is to distribute all of the remaining funds to the original claimant, that's one way.

The other one is to distribute some of those funds to a trust or a foundation which would be for the benefit of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

JAMES KELLY: Lindy Nelson-Carr said that could include health and education programs. State cabinet will look at all submission and announce how it will

distribute the unclaimed stolen wages fund soon.

James Kelly, Lateline.

Source: ABC Lateline

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