Stolen Wages in NSW

For decades the NSW Government literally stole the money of Aboriginal people who it said were under its care and protection. The sums run to millions of dollars. The NSW Government has begun to address the issue, but a resolution has not yet been reached.

Many Aboriginal people in NSW have known all along about stolen wages because it was part of the official apparatus which controlled their lives for much of the 20^th Century. The Government took people’s wages, their lump sum entitlements, their child endowment and social security cheques and their savings. But the details on the public record about how the Government controlled people’s labour and money are sketchy. Bob Carr says that most of the individual records no longer exist.

Between 1900 and 1969 Aboriginal people were forced to put their wages, pensions, inheritances, lump sum entitlements and child endowment payments into trust funds set up by the NSW Government. They had to ask permission to withdraw any sums. Usually it was refused. Many people never saw their money again, after the trust funds were closed down by the government in 1969.

In State Parliament on 11 March 2004 Bob Carr apologised to the people affected and said State Cabinet is committed to developing a scheme to identify and reimburse those who are owed money. He said the government would consult on the details of a repayment scheme. (See also the March media release from Public Interest Advocacy Centre, which followed Premier Carr’s statement to Parliament).

This followed campaigns by community figures like Marjorie Woodrow and Les Ridgeway and freedom of information requests by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, a community legal centre acting on the behalf of individual claimants. It also came soon after the 4 February 2004 edition of the National Indigenous Times, which revealed the existence of a draft minute from the NSW Department of Community Services (DOCS), urging the NSW government to adopt a scheme for repaying wages and entitlements owing to Aboriginal people that had been placed in government trust accounts between 1900 and 1969. This followed many years of unsuccesssful attempts by Aboriginal people to have their money returned to them. The draft minute never made it to Cabinet.

In May 2004, NSW Premier, Bob Carr, established the ‘Aboriginal Trust Fund Reparation Scheme’ (ATFRS) Panel. One of the first responsibilities of the Panel was to conduct a round of community consultations to collect information on the issue.

Later, ANTaR NSW hosted a meeting of the stolen wages working party including representatives of the NSW Sorry Day Committee, the Indigenous Law Centre (ILC) at the University of NSW, the Public Interest Advocacy Centre (PIAC), the Federation of Traditional Owners, the Labor Council of NSW Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Committee and the Gilbert + Tobin Centre for Public Law, UNSW. As well as learning of considerable community disquiet about the current processes, it was resolved that along with PIAC, Link-Up and the NSW Reconciliation Council, ANTaR NSW would write a submission which was delivered to the AFTRS Panel in August 2004.

The ILC produced a Stolen Wages information sheet which has been disseminted through community networks and to individual claimants. ANTaR also produced resources to assist concerned people to write to Premier Carr urging the NSW Government to negotiate with Aboriginal people about the stolen wages issue.

The ATFRS Panel released its report in December 2004, recommending the establishment of a scheme to operate for five years to receive claims, undertake research and determine payments owed. In June 2005 a panel was announced to administer the scheme. It will be headed by Senator Aden Ridgeway, Indigenous lawyer Robynne Quiggin and Sam Jefferies from the Murdi Paaki Regional Council in the state's west. The panel starts on July 1.

At this time, ANTaR NSW is still assessing the community response to the Panel’s report but is encouraged that many of the principles included in submissions made have been included.

Keep checking ANTaR’s website for more information about stolen wages in NSW. There is already a lot of detail about similar controls and government abuse in Queensland on the ANTaR website here.

STOLEN WAGES NSW ARCHIVE >>