BRISBANE’ archdiocese’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commission (CJPC) has expressed its disappointment at the Queensland Government’s recent decision on the distribution of funds from the Indigenous Wages and Savings Reparations Scheme and the now defunct Aborigine Welfare Fund.
The scheme was established in 2002 to provide reparation payments to indigenous workers who had wages placed in trust by the Queensland Government over a significant part of the 20th century and never returned.
Much of the money set aside for the scheme was not distributed and the Government undertook a process of consultation with indigenous people during 2007 to determine what would be done with unclaimed funds.
Premier Anna Bligh and Indigenous Partnerships Minister Lindy Nelson-Carr recently announced that about $15 million from the scheme would provide top-up payments of either $1500 or $3000 to claimants who had already received payments of $2000 or $4000.
It was decided that $21.2 million from the scheme and $10.8 million from the Aborigines Welfare Fund would be used to establish the Indigenous Queenslanders Foundation, which will provide education and sporting scholarships of up to $20,000 to young indigenous people.
The CJPC’s executive officer Peter Arndt said that, after consulting with its Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advisors, the commission urged the Government to re-imburse claimants fully for all wages placed in trust and never returned.
It also urged the Government to pay the descendants of deceased workers all wages owed in full.
“We are talking about money earned by indigenous women and men by the sweat of their brow and taken away from them and used for other purposes,” Mr Arndt said.
“The Queensland Government’s attempts to get away with a token payment which is a small fraction of the actual amount earned by indigenous workers is unfair.
“The only just decision would be to pay Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workers in full as the New South Wales Government is doing.”
