STATE Member for Indooroopilly Ronan Lee was handed a petition calling on Queensland Premier Peter Beattie to undertake serious consultation with indigenous people on its reparations package.
Toowoomba Catholic Social Justice Commission executive officer Dr Mark Copland and Brisbane Catholic Justice and Peace Commission executive officer Peter Arndt delivered the petition with more than 1700 signatures to Mr Lee and asked that he urge the Premier to listen to the concerns of indigenous people about the “stolen wages” of their people and respond in justice and compassion.
The Queensland Government established a reparations package in 2002 to respond to the injustice faced by indigenous workers who had wages placed in trust by the Government and never returned.
The package offered a payment of $2000 or $4000 to eligible indigenous workers.
The petition expressed dissatisfaction with the size of the payment offered to workers, the refusal of the Government to accept applications for compensation from family members of deceased workers and the Government’s insistence that applicants waived their right to take legal action on the matter.
