Stolen Wages Still To Be Claimed

Sydney Morning Herald

Monday December 22, 2008

Joel Gibson Indigenous Affairs Reporter

ABORIGINAL workers whose wages were "stolen" last century have until May to lodge a claim with the NSW Government after it extended the deadline amid fears that many claimants did not know about the scheme.

Little more than $1 million has been paid out of a $70 million capped fund announced four years ago, prompting critics to say the Government must do more to advertise the scheme.

Historians estimate tens of thousands of indigenous Australians who were wards of the state had wages, social security benefits, soldiers' pay and other earnings controlled by state and federal governments last century, never to see them again.

A 2006 Senate inquiry found that governments had failed to ensure that savings and trust funds were protected from misappropriation and fraud.

In 2004 NSW announced an Aboriginal Trust Fund Repayment Scheme to pay up to $70 million to workers and their descendants who did not receive wages, pensions, family endowments, inheritances or lump sum compensation payments from trust funds administered by the Aboriginal Protection Board and the Aborigines Welfare Board between 1960 and 1969.

It is more flexible than other state schemes but has paid out 104 claims adding up to just $1.036 million. In total, 660 potential claimants and 2655 descendants have been registered.

Keppie Waters, solicitor of the indigenous justice program at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, which represents stolen wages claimants, said the numbers showed the scheme had not been adequately publicised. She said about 60 per cent of claims had been denied because adequate records did not exist, including for most of the 400 boys sent to Kinchela Boys Home in Kempsey.

On a tour of communities, she found awareness of the scheme was poor, and feedback to claimants almost non-existent. Her centre and other advocacy groups say workers should not have to prove they are owed money because it was a government responsibility to keep records.

The acting Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Kevin Greene, said the Government was determined to ensure justice for Aboriginal people in NSW. His spokesman said the extension would allow more people to apply, but did not commit to extra funding for advertising the scheme.

Records were not always complete because of poor record-keeping by past governments, the spokesman said, but previously unknown material was indexed last year and 127,463 new database entries recorded, which would improve claimants' chances of success.

The move to establish the scheme in 2004 came after a panel set up by the Carr government recommended $15 million be provided for NSW compensation payments over five years.

It followed the example set by the Queensland Government, which in May 2002 committed $55 million in compensation.

A Senate inquiry in 2006 found that last century "government administration of indigenous monies failed to ensure that indigenous people did receive the money they were entitled to and that the savings and trust funds were adequately protected from misappropriation and fraud".