SATURDAY 10 DECEMBER 2005
National Day of Action for Stolen Wages
Joint Statement 10 December 2005
Signatories to the statement below call on all governments to act immediately to remedy this ongoing and gross abuse of human rights.
Wage Justice – the Continuing Denial of Aboriginal Human Rights
A fundamental human right is breached every day by Australian governments that refuse to negotiate the fair resolution of missing, unpaid and underpaid wages 'stolen' from Aboriginal people over the past century.
- This is a clear violation of the right to be paid for your work.
- Now is the time for the violation of this right to be addressed.
- The situation in Queensland is critical: the government is holding claimants to ransom with a limited reparations offer that closes on 31 December 2005, less than three weeks away!
If your wages or benefits had been withheld, lost, or stolen, you'd want them back too, at full value.
National Day of Action for Stolen Wages
Human Rights Day, 10 December 2005
Stolen wages claimants and their supporters are planning Stolen Wages National Day of Action events in every state and territory in Australia on Human Rights Day, the international day established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1950 to mark the anniversary of the Assembly's adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
In Queensland, the campaign focus of the National Day will be the imminent closure of the reparations offer at the end of this month. Australians for Native Title & Reconciliation (ANTaR) 'Sea of Hands' will feature at events in Townsville, Yeppoon and Brisbane to highlight the injustice of the Queensland Government’s offer and the violation of the human rights of all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have been denied wages and other entitlements.
Around Australia, Stolen Wages National Day of Action supporters will be campaigning with claimants in their own states as well as Human Rights Day activities in urban and regional areas.
Background
The ongoing injustice perpetrated for most of the 20th century by governments around Australia through the control of wages, savings and benefits belonging to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, actually began at the point of colonisation, and the unlawful taking of Aboriginal country and other genocidal acts including the forced removal of children from their families. Much money has been improperly withheld from people to whom it belonged, perpetuating the intergenerational poverty that states and territories in turn used to and continue to use to justify the taking of children from their families.
These government-held trust account funds were over time transferred to public revenue or just ‘disappeared’ along with many of the records. Generations of families have been economically disadvantaged – yet governments still blame Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for their poverty!
Australia should be ashamed that these breaches of both the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (Article 23) and the International Labor Organisation Conventions (95, 105 & 111) have still not been rectified.
Queensland
In 2002 the Queensland Government offered up to $4,000 to people previously controlled 'under the Act'. Families of deceased workers cannot apply. Claimants must sign an indemnity waiving their right to recover their full entitlements. The offer closes in just three weeks yet there is an 18-month backlog of FOI requests to retrieve financial information.
Less than half the anticipated claimants have applied. One-third of these were rejected because the government cannot find records to evaluate the claims. A recent Stolen Wages Working Group survey showed 94% of Indigenous respondents think the offer unfair, and 100% think descendants of deceased workers should be included.
New South Wales
The NSW Government has apologised for practices of previous governments and promised to fully reimburse money still owing at today’s value. There is no demand to surrender legal rights, and both direct and descendant claimants are eligible. The NSW Government admits its records are incomplete. Although it has promised to give due weight to oral evidence the burden of proof appears to rest with claimants.
The Aboriginal Trust Funds Repayment Scheme (ATFRS) has commenced processing claims, prioritising direct living claimants. Guidelines for the operation of the scheme are not publicly available and how appeals will be handled is not yet known. Lack of procedural transparency remains an issue. Recently the ATFRS made an interim payment offer to several claimants who are now considering their options.
Difficulties with the Australian Tax Office have recently been resolved in favour of NSW claimants, but for other states the tax issue is still up in the air.
Other States and Territories and the Commonwealth
Victoria and South Australia controlled the wages of child apprentices. In Victoria there is the possibility of government assistance for record searches. The content of SA records is also under scrutiny.
The WA Government is believed to be assessing its exposure to workers' claims. The Commonwealth Government is responsible for the missing wages and savings of Northern Territory workers.
The Commonwealth’s role in decades of defective distribution of child endowment and pensions nationally needs examination, especially with the Federal Treasurer Peter Costello flagging a $14 billion surplus this financial year and proposing to "return something to taxpayers" in the form of tax cuts. A commitment not to tax any repayments and reparations would cost nothing.
No government has yet made a public account of its financial management, which so disastrously affected Indigenous lives in the past and today.
The signatories to this statement call on all governments to act immediately to remedy this ongoing and gross abuse of human rights.
The Queensland Government's non-negotiable offer and their determination to close this issue down by 31 December 2005 are flagrant breaches of human rights.
We condemn the lack of fairness and compassion that is being shown by the Queensland Government:
Aboriginal & Islander Catholic Council, Townsville
· Australia Asia Worker Links
· Australian Jewish Democratic Society Executive
· Australian Council of Trade Unions
· Australian Greens Leader, Senator Bob Brown
· Australian Services Union National
· Australian Services Union Inner City SACS Branch, Sydney
· Australian Services Union Victoria, Authorities and Services Branch
· Australians for Native Title & Reconciliation (ANTaR) Dr David Cooper National Director
· Catholics in Coalition for Justice & Peace Margaret Hinchey
· CFMEU (Construction & General Division) NSW Branch Wendy McClelland Executive Assistant to the President & General Manager
· Combined Community Legal Centres (NSW) Alison G Aggarwal Advocacy and Human Rights Officer
· Conflict Resolution Network Dr Stella Cornelius AO OBE Director
· Crossroads Aboriginal Ministries Ray Minniecon Director
· Democrats Deputy Leader Senator Andrew Bartlett
· Edmund Rice Centre, Phil Glendenning Director
· Ethnic Child Care Family and Community Services Co-operative Ltd Ms Vivi Germanos-Koutsounadis OAM Executive Director
· Institute of Cultural Affairs Australia Joan Firkins President
· Julbu Julbu Olgumman (Townsville)
· Liquor Hospitality & Miscellaneous Union Queensland Branch
· National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Ecumenical Commission (NATSIEC) Graeme Mundine
· National Tertiary Education Union Queensland
· NSW Ecumenical Council Rev. Doctor Ray Williamson General Secretary
· NSW Reconciliation Council Greg Davison Chairperson
· NSW Sorry Day Committee Aunty Nancy Hill Wood Chairperson
· Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC) Ms Robin Banks CEO
· Thuringowa Townsville Community Justice Group
· Townsville Aboriginal & Islander Media Association 4K1G
For more information contact Gary Highland 0418 476 940 or Christine
Howes on 0419 656 277
