Dave Riley, Brisbane
In May 2002, Premier Peter Beattie's Labor government capped an offer of $55.4 million to Aboriginal and Islander people whose wages and savings had been withheld by previous governments in Queensland. The offer of compensation was for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who had their wages or savings controlled by the Queensland government under a "protection act" anytime up until the 1980s.
Individuals who were affected by these practices and alive after May 9, 2002, were offered a final payment of $2000 or $4000 according to age. Although the fund has been open for three years, of the estimated 20,000 former workers only 4500 have been paid. The offer closed at the end of 2005.
Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation estimates that thousands of Aboriginal workers across several generations lost an estimated $500 million because the state government diverted withheld wages into government revenue and because of the misuse of trust monies. But the government says it isn't about the money. The Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy, John Mickel, told ABC radio's AM program as the deadline arrived: "Now, it is in no way meant to fully compensate. It is an offer of reconciliation, and it's within that spirit that this offer was made."
But senior members of Aboriginal groups in the Fitzroy River catchment area in central Queensland have called on the state government to do something more about the stolen wages. They insist that the offer discriminates against former workers and their families, and ask what will happen with any money left over from the $55.4 million. The elders also argue that the government has not developed an open, accountable and independent appeals process for the more than 2500 applicants whose claims have been rejected.
Fitzroy Basin Elders Committee president Margaret Lawton said in a media release that the deadline for claims to the $55.4 million was irrelevant. "We're not letting it rest there, we're going to keep on fighting", she said.
"We've got no money to call in solicitors to help us do these things and we're sick of fighting the government for money. They've put the offer on the table; if you don't accept it that's it, you don't get anything, and if you accept it you can't get a top up", Lawton added.
"Now it doesn't matter which way you go, we're the losers with or without that money. I don't think the government's got the right to tell us what we can or can't get and the time limit on that money. That money is part of our wages and I think it's wrong for Peter Beattie to say these things.
"We were under their thumbs all our early lives and we're still under their thumbs. They should come to us and ask us what we want to do about it, whether we want it for ourselves or for our communities. That's all, they've got to come up and ask.
"But no, they make the decisions down there and we've got to abide by them. We're sick of the government making decisions for us."
From Green Left Weekly, January 25, 2006.
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