The head of the country’s 50 most influential Indigenous organisations has demanded Stolen Generations survivors in Western Australia and Queensland be compensated for the suffering they endured.
WA and Queensland are the only two jurisdictions in which survivors have never received reparations for being forcibly removed from their families under government policies the landmark 1997 Bringing Them Home report found amounted to genocide.
Lead convenor of the Coalition of Peaks, Pat Turner, says time is up for governments to compensate Stolen Generations survivors.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
“I am quite happy to say to the WA government and the Queensland government: ‘time’s up’,” Coalition of Peaks lead convener Pat Turner said. “You have to follow the other jurisdictions around Australia, the last ones to come on board, and it’s high time that you did the right thing in a human rights context.”
After years of resistance, the federal government announced on Thursday the living survivors in the Northern Territory and ACT will be eligible for at least $75,000 each in compensation from next year under a $378.6 million scheme. The Commonwealth is responsible for those jurisdictions because the Stolen Generations primarily occurred before either was granted self-government.
Ms Turner, an Arrernte and Gurdanji woman, was briefly overcome with emotion while discussing the scheme during a press conference at Parliament House.
“I just want to say how much this means to me personally,” she said. “I also know, however, that there are many survivors who have died waiting for this recognition, my mum being one of them.”
The Minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, a WA MP, also urged his home state to compensate survivors.
“I can only encourage state governments to give serious consideration to what we’ve done. We’ve got to remember the policies that were implemented did tear apart families,” he said.
The Noongar, Yamitji and Wongi man is himself the child of a Stolen Generations survivor.
“My own mother was a member of the Stolen Generations and she and her brothers and sisters never got to see each other until they were in their 20s,” he said. “You can’t undo the emotional impact that has … it stays with us.”
The federal government’s announcement came as it continues to battle a class action by NT Stolen Generations survivors and their descendants in the NSW Supreme Court.
Shine Lawyers, which filed the class action, said it was still investigating how the new scheme would affect the lawsuit.
“We are disappointed to see that the announcement is silent on reparations available for the descendants of First Nations Australians who were removed from their loved ones … It took the launch of substantial legal proceedings to have the government act,” a spokeswoman said in a statement.
Opposition spokeswoman for Indigenous Australians, Wiradjuri woman Linda Burney – who had pledged Labor would introduce a similar scheme for survivors if it won the last election – welcomed the government’s decision but raised concerns that some people would be left out.
“This is for surviving members of the Stolen Generations and we know that so many of those members have passed away,” Ms Burney said. “The question needs to be: ‘What about those people and the ongoing trauma that their families are experiencing?’ ”
Mr Wyatt said he wanted to focus on survivors who were still alive to ensure they were supported in their twilight years.
“In this program, we focused on those who are still with us because they still feel the pain and grief,” he said.
The WA and Queensland governments have been contacted for comment.
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