Andrew Murray (WA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As part of my long campaign to achieve some measure of public consciousness and justice for those who experienced institutional care as children, my adjournment speech tonight addresses the problem of stolen or unpaid wages. What prompts me to do so is a reading of the Indigenous Law Centre’s report entitled Eventually they get it all: government management of Aboriginal trust money in New South Wales, published in September of this year.

The words ‘eventually they get it all’ date back to 1937. They were the words uttered by the secretary of the Aborigines Protection Board at that time, one Arthur Pettit, during a Legislative Assembly parliamentary committee session in New South Wales. When pressed about the return of wages to young Aborigines indentured to work as apprentices and whose earnings were being paid into trust accounts controlled by the board, he gave a rather misplaced reassurance, as it turned out, that eventually they get it all.

Leaping ahead some seven decades, the hollow ring of this somewhat patronising ‘trust me’ claim continues. Most Aborigines never received their entitlements. Both the Queensland and New South Wales governments have apologised for the mismanagement, even misappropriation, of millions of dollars held in trust as wages for Aboriginal workers last century. It is a pity they did not use plain English and call it theft. That is what you call keeping what does not belong to you, isn’t it?

However, the issue is not restricted just to these states; it is an issue that crosses all state and territory boundaries. Furthermore, it is an issue that is not restricted to Indigenous Australians. All races in Australia are affected. There is another group of people for whom the non-payment of wages is a burning issue and who have had no justice. In contrast to Indigenous people who were institutionalised, non-Indigenous people who were institutionalised or in care in Australia have weak and virtually unfunded advocacy organisations and they get only sporadic media attention.

Children shipped to Australia under the child migration schemes last century represent a period of our history that remained largely hidden until the 2001 Senate Community Affairs References Committee inquiry into child migration. Unfortunately, it has been hidden since, although not as markedly as before. Many of the submissions to this child migrant inquiry included stories of teenage child migrants forced to work outside their institutions as domestic and agricultural labourers. The main concerns raised about these employment placements were the payment or nonpayment of low wages and the failure to facilitate access to accumulated moneys held in trust by churches, charities and state governments.

From at least the 1920s, trust accounts were part of the formal service agreements that were signed by employers, who were usually farmers. Children or young persons were generally paid a small token amount of pocket money, with the rest banked by child welfare. Evidence to the inquiry revealed that many children never received, or could not remember receiving, moneys held in trust. Evidence also revealed that, for the most part, child migrants provided a cheap, powerless labour force for farmers and supporters of the respective, mostly religious based, institutions. On leaving their employment, child migrants would attempt to access the moneys owed but were invariably told that there was none to collect. Many have taken action decades later to get what they are owed, only to be informed that records have been destroyed or that no evidence at all exists of such moneys.

The 2001 child migrant report Lost innocents: righting the record cites evidence given by the Catholic Joint Liaison Group on Child Migration that best sums up the records situation. It says:

The child welfare records are very patchy indeed. A whole lot of records were destroyed back in the 1950s. Our own records are uneven—there are some there—so exactly how the thing was administered, where money went, why kids were not caught up with when they turned 21 to receive this money when they came of age, I do not have any clear cut answers to that.

Overall, there appears to have been the likelihood of or at least the potential for fraud and mismanagement of such a significant nature that it is plainly unjust that no reparations have been made. It is even more unjust considering that most child migrants were also callously and deliberately exploited within institutions. This work went far beyond carrying out a few domestic chores. Many were involved in hazardous situations such as building sites and commercial laundries. This has often had tragic long-term health consequences. The working hours and conditions were often horrendous.

There is another group of people—possibly the largest group of all—who were shamelessly exploited to benefit the agencies who were supposed to care for them. They are the non-Indigenous, non-child-migrant state wards raised in institutional care. The 2004 Senate Community Affairs References Committee report Forgotten Australians: a report on Australians who experienced institutional or out-of-home care as children notes:

The exploitation of children as ‘slave labour’—a term used in many submissions, often at a very young age, was a common means to gain income for the institution. This included working in commercial laundries, on farm plots or in other ventures that would create income for the institution.

State wards also experienced outside employment during their mid to late teens. However, just as with the child migrants, promises of wages banked were mostly misleading. Submission 287 sums up the experience of many. It states:

All money that was banked or earned later on other jobs where I was placed by the Department was placed in an account under the name of McCall who was at the time Director ... There was a large amount of money involved, and on reaching the age of 21, I approached the department, but was told there was none left.

The Lost Innocents report notes at page 95 that evidence given by the Western Australian Department for Family and Children’s Services revealed that a number of inquiries about trust moneys had been received. They advised that trust moneys should have been paid when the child turned 21, went to work or was married. Money not collected was returned to Treasury. However, as financial records were apparently only kept for seven years, they were unable to prove whether moneys had been paid or not.

This sham of inexcusable excuses has been exposed by Aboriginal activism into their stolen wages issue. Their refusal to accept these excuses is precisely what has led to the Indigenous Law Centre report I referred to earlier, Eventually they get it all: government management of Aboriginal trust money in New South Wales. Get it all they did not, nor did the child migrants or the ‘forgotten Australians’. But at least the Indigenous people are now getting some of it. Non-Indigenous people are not.

What separates these groups in their activism for justice is access to resources. It is certainly pleasing that long-term substantial government funding has facilitated a mostly well organised and effective Aboriginal advocacy network. It is also pleasing that the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs are currently conducting an inquiry into the issue of Indigenous paid labour. I would have preferred that this inquiry had been broader in its scope to include former child migrants and ‘forgotten Australians’. If only the child migrants and ‘forgotten Australians’ had the same political clout. If only they could also attract the funding they deserve. It would be nigh on impossible for them to have the capacity to carry out the research required to put together a comprehensive and effective report such as Eventually they get it all. These people have to scramble for every dollar they can lay their hands on. It is a constant struggle for their support groups to put together regular newsletters, let alone survive.

Governments and parliaments across Australia need to remember that there were over half a million children in institutions and in care last century. Non-Indigenous children too were stolen or taken away from their families. They too suffered often unspeakable treatment by their so-called carers. They too have endured adulthoods marred by their childhoods. And, most importantly, they too deserve access to substantial ongoing funding and resources for advocacy, including addressing the stolen wages issue. They say justice delayed is justice denied: there was never a truer statement when applied to former child migrants and the ‘forgotten Australians’. I call on the Senate and the Commonwealth government to help rectify this terrible wrong. One group of institutionalised children in society are rightly getting redress, and they well deserve it. The other groups of institutionalised children deserve redress for their stolen wages as well.