BY BILL MASON
BRISBANE — "Too little, too late" is how Aboriginal employee Gloria Beckett has described the Queensland Labor government's compensation offer to Aborigines who were victims of the "stolen wages" system that operated in the state until the 1970s.
On May 15, Premier Peter Beattie offered 16,400 Indigenous Queenslanders up to $4000 each as "reparations" for having their wages and savings withheld decades ago. Some Aboriginal leaders have described the offer, which could total $55.4 million, as the "best available" in the circumstances. Others have described it as an "absolute insult".
The Aboriginal Welfare Fund was established in 1943 to hold the wages and savings of Aboriginal workers that had been withheld by the state. From 1897, when the practice began, to the 1970s, up to 70% of the wages and savings of Aboriginal people were withheld.
The money was supposed to be held in trust, but many Indigenous workers received little or none of their earnings. The fund was raided by government departments and defrauded by corrupt officials.
Beattie's offer does not make up for five years working without wages on remote Queensland properties, Beckett said. It is too late for her elder sister Kathy, who would have been eligible for the maximum $4000 payment, because she died four years ago.
Queensland Anti-Discrimination Commissioner Karen Walters has slammed the government's offer, pointing out that it was inconsistent with a previous decision by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 1996 to award $7000 to Palm Island residents who had not been paid for around a decade.
Aboriginal communities are holding meetings to decide their response to the offer. Acceptance would mean giving up the right to sue for compensation in future.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, May 22, 2002.
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