This period of Government sanctioned slave labour is known as Stolen Wages. For thousands of Indigenous people during the late 1800s – 1970s, their work was unpaid and controlled by the State. There was forced servitude and state-controlled and organised child slave labour.
From the late 1800s until the 1970s Aboriginal workers were for all intents and purposes enslaved. They were denied access to their wages which in many cases were simply stolen by corrupt officials and employers. It locked them into a cycle of poverty.
The Stolen Wages Class Action proceedings claimed that the Queensland “Protection Acts” in force between 1939 and 1972, required that the wages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers to be paid to the protector or superintendent of an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander district, reserve, settlement or ...
Compensation for Stolen Generation Survivors
All members would receive a $200,000 ex gratia payment per survivor plus a separate $7,000 payment per survivor for funeral expenses. The proposal would commence from 1 July 2023.
1969. The New South Wales Aboriginal Welfare Board is abolished. The trust accounts are closed down and the remaining funds transferred to the Department of Youth and Community Services.
The New South Wales Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme provides ex-gratia payments of $75,000 to living Stolen Generations survivors who were removed from their families and committed to the care of the New South Wales Aborigines Protection or Welfare Boards.
Now in September 1967, the Commonwealth Conciliation and Arbitration Commission decided to remove the racially discriminatory clause from the Federal Pastoral Industry Award, and equal wages for Aboriginal pastoral workers were phased in from December 1968 in the Kimberley region in the far north of Western Australia.
Around 33 per cent of adult Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are descendants of Stolen Generations survivors. In Western Australia, this figure is as high as 46 Per cent. Today, Stolen Generations survivors live right across Australia. Most (73%) live in New South Wales, Queensland and Western Australia.
In the 1860s, Victoria became the first state to pass laws authorising Aboriginal children to be removed from their parents. Similar policies were later adopted by other states and territories – and by the federal government when it was established in the 1900s.
Consistent with many previous studies, Indigenous Australians have, on average, lower total income than non-Indigenous Australians, with this difference being largest for those who are full-time employed. The difference is also larger for males compared to females.
In 2018–19, the median gross adjusted household income per week among Indigenous Australians aged 18 and over was $553, after adjusting for household size and age profile.
Why were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children taken from their families? The forcible removal of First Nations children from their families was based on assimilation policies, which claimed that the lives of First Nations people would be improved if they became part of white society.
Under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983, if land owned by an Aboriginal Land Council falls within a certain category, it is automatically exempt from rates and charges that may be levied by a Local Government Area or Water Authority.
Between 11,000 and 14,000 Aboriginal people died, compared with only 399 to 440 colonisers. The tallies of the dead are not the only measure of what took place, according to Dr Bill Pascoe, a digital humanities specialist and key researcher on the project. “We are always using conservative estimates,” Pascoe said.
Why were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children taken from their families? The forcible removal of First Nations children from their families was based on assimilation policies, which claimed that the lives of First Nations people would be improved if they became part of white society.
The islands were settled by different seafaring Melanesian cultures such as the Torres Strait Islanders over 2500 years ago, and cultural interactions continued via this route with the Aboriginal people of northeast Australia.
It is happening today. While the intent of child removal today may be different to that experienced by the Stolen Generations, the effect is the same: a loss of identity and the exacerbation of intergenerational trauma.
Since the colonisation of Australia by European settlers, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians have experienced extreme hardships, ranging from the loss of traditional culture and homelands to the forced removal of children and denial of citizenship rights.
The Stolen Generations refers to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children who were removed from their families between 1910 and 1970. This was done by Australian federal and state government agencies and church missions, through a policy of assimilation.
On 13 February 2008 Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, particularly to the Stolen Generations whose lives had been blighted by past government policies of forced child removal and assimilation.
The NLC manages the receipt and disbursement of royalty monies to Aboriginal people. The NLC maintains a royalty trust account that receives monies on behalf of individuals and associations of Aboriginal people and disperses them in accordance with section 35(2), (3) & (4) of the Land Rights Act.
From the first federal electoral Act in 1902 to 1965, when the last state changed its law, tens of thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were subject to regulations which prohibited them from voting at federal and state elections.
It wasn't until 1969 that any real progress was made. In that year, the Australasian Meat Industry Employees Union and other workers' groups brought a case to the ACAC against the Meat and Allied Trades Federation (and others) arguing for equal pay for all employees.
The NSW Stolen Generations Reparations Scheme provides one-off ex gratia payments and an apology to surviving Stolen Generations members who were removed by, committed to, or otherwise came to be in the care of the Aborigines Welfare Board under the Aborigines Protection Act 1909, until the Act was repealed on 2 June ...