Stephen Parry (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the Chair of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee, Senator Barnett, I present additional information received by the committee on its inquiry into Indigenous stolen wages.

Andrew Bartlett (Queensland, Australian Democrats) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the documents.

The committee’s report was tabled in December last year—from memory, it was in the final sitting week. That was six months ago. The first point that I want to make is that there has still been no response from the federal government to the recommendations contained in that report. There were only six recommendations, from memory, and they were unanimous, having the support of all the Liberal senators—the committee at that time was chaired by Senator Payne—and all of the Labor senators, as well as that of me—I having initiated that inquiry—and of Senator Siewert on behalf of the Australian Greens. They were pretty straightforward recommendations. Only a small number of them actually related to action by the federal government. I think it is unacceptable that there has not yet been a response after six months.

I want to emphasise that the recommendations also related to state governments. It is pleasing to see the information from the South Australian government that has been tabled today, which I am taking note of. It does indicate some effort being put into examining details of the state government’s records to ascertain whether or not there are similar examples of stolen wages amongst the Indigenous people of South Australian as has occurred—and this has been quite clearly verified and acknowledged—under the Queensland government and the New South Wales government. I also note and welcome the subsequent action that was taken recently in the Western Australian parliament when the relevant minister committed the government of Western Australia to examine this issue further and to act on it. I would like to see a little bit more urgency on this issue because it affects many people who are quite old and have been waiting a long time. But it is good to see some clear commitment to action by the Western Australian government as well, and I congratulate them for that.

I would like to take this opportunity not only to note the activity that is happening in South Australia, which I think is a start although more needs to be done—and the information that has been tabled indicates that work is being done but still more has to occur—but to reiterate my call for all of those state governments that have not acted and fully examined whether there is anything more that they should be doing to act as urgently as possible. I repeat my urging of the Queensland government to redouble its efforts to properly respond to this issue. There was an initial response from the Queensland government but, as this report makes clear, that response was completely inadequate.

I reaffirm for the benefit of the Senate and those who might not know about Indigenous stolen wages—and I recommend the report to them so they can find out more about this issue—that there is a clear-cut, undenied circumstance of Indigenous people, certainly throughout Queensland and parts of New South Wales and quite probably in other parts of the country, being systematically denied the wages and entitlements that were theirs. They did the work and they had a legal entitlement to the wage but it was diverted into state government coffers under the so-called ‘benevolent protection’ of state government departments and bureaucrats. It was meant to be held in trust but in many cases it was simply never paid.

Such practices stretched over decades. These included federal family support payments that were simply taken by state governments and used by them. In many cases they were used to replace revenue that they were spending at a state level on missions and Indigenous reserves. It was a massive misappropriation of money that was directly owned by and the entitlement of Indigenous people. The response from the Queensland government was to offer a maximum of $4,000. That was simply a joke. That contrasted with the recent announcement at state level in Queensland where the state government agreed on a welcome reparations package for people who were subjected to ill-treatment as children in government institutions. Those people were able to access payments of up to $40,000, as I understand it. I welcome that; I do not begrudge that. But I note that does not apply to the Aboriginal children who were in government institutions known as Aboriginal missions and reserves. They are excluded from that payment. I find that extraordinary. Contrast that $40,000 payment with the $4,000 that people were offered as recompense for decades, in some cases, of nonpayment or underpayment of wages that they were legally entitled to. It is simply scandalous. I urge the Queensland government to do more. I know they are having negotiations at the moment about what to do with unexpended moneys from that first offer. I hope those can progress quickly. But that is not all that needs to be done.

In conclusion, I repeat my urging for the federal government, particularly the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Mr Brough, to respond to this inquiry. The federal government is not being asked to do a lot. It would be a simple thing to do. It would increase the pressure on those state governments which have not done the right thing so far to do more than they have. If the federal government cannot be bothered to respond to something that is so clear cut, is such a blatant injustice and actually requires so little from them after six months on an issue that we all acknowledged is urgent—everyone on the committee acknowledged this—then that really makes it much harder to put pressure on the state governments to do what they should be doing.

Rachel Siewert (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I support the motion. We should take note of the further information that has been tabled as to the inquiry on Indigenous stolen wages. I particularly record my pleasure at the announcement by the Western Australian government that they are going to establish a task force to look into the stolen wages. I note that they responded fairly quickly to the Senate committee report. When I say ‘fairly quickly’, I note the issue has been outstanding in Western Australia for a number of years. While the Western Australian government’s announcement followed relatively quickly the publication of the recommendations of the Senate committee, it has taken the Western Australian government quite a significant period of time to acknowledge that this was an issue. However, having said that, I am extremely pleased, and I hope that the task force will move very rapidly and that the state government will come up very quickly with a system of reparation, because the people affected by this stolen wages issue are starting to pass on. During the inquiry one person who had their wages stolen passed on. The many people affected who are now elderly deserve to see the fruits of their labour that were stolen from them.

The further information that is coming to light—and I suspect there is going to be much more—shows that not only was the government responsible for taking wages; some of the missions were, as were some of the pastoral stations. Some of the pastoral stations’ infrastructure was actually bought with Aboriginal wages. Aboriginal people did not own this infrastructure; those pastoral stations did. Instead of Aborigines being able to look after their welfare and their families’ welfare, they were in fact contributing to the development of the pastoral industry, from which they saw no gain.

Some of the other evidence coming to light goes to what the Commonwealth did and did not know. When it comes to pensions and child endowment, there is now clear evidence coming to light that the Commonwealth knew that the states and the pastoral properties were in fact keeping the bulk of these payments and giving ‘pocket money’ to Aboriginal people. Again, that is stolen money. That money belongs to those Aboriginal people. Not only do the Commonwealth have the responsibility to show some leadership in terms of encouraging those states that have not yet responded to take action, they have a responsibility to look into their own records to see how much they knew about child endowment and other pension payments and to see how much they need to encourage the states to provide as reparation to Aboriginal people whose entitlements were stolen. There is clear evidence that Commonwealth agencies knew at the time. They carried out audits of money being taken. They provided advice to state governments and to other employers about how much money to keep back. It is quite obvious that the Commonwealth knew, so they cannot wash their hands of this. They cannot pretend that it is purely a state issue. They need to show leadership. They need to go back to their files; to look at that evidence; to look at the evidence of the reports and the audits, which were carried out, as I understand it, on various occasions; and they need to provide that information to Aboriginal people. They also need to provide that information to the states. They need to look at the other recommendations that were made in that report that relate to them.

Once again, I am pleased that the Western Australian government has decided to establish this task force. I am concerned about the length of time that it will take. I think they need to be operating at the same time to ensure that they start thinking about what scheme is appropriate to provide reparation to those Aboriginal people, who are now getting quite elderly. They need to be looked after now and have reparation provided now rather than in some indeterminate period of time in the future. I urge the federal government to look at the recommendations of this report as a matter of urgency and take action to implement the recommendations. This is another issue where they cannot afford to sit on their hands and hope that the people who are affected will go away. They will be derelict in their responsibilities and in their duty to the Aboriginal people of Australia if they do not show this leadership now. I seek leave to continue my remarks at a later stage.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.