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Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act of 1897
Under the Aboriginals Protection and Restriction of the Sale of Opium Act of 1897 (and subsequent laws until the 1970s), the Queensland government controls the wages and savings of Aboriginal Queenslanders working under these acts. -
Wages are 66% of white workers
Aboriginal pastoral wages are 66% of the wages for white workers. -
The Aborigines Welfare Fund
The Aborigines Welfare Fund is set up “for the general benefit of Aboriginal people”. The fund received income from government-operated retail stores, child endowment benefits and Aboriginal wages. Until 1966 a compulsory deduction from Aboriginal peoples’ wages was transferred to the fund. -
Paid 50% of the state minimum wage
Aboriginal workers on reserves are paid 50% of the state minimum wage. Equal wages in the pastoral industry. -
New South Wales Aboriginal Welfare Board is abolished
The New South Wales Aboriginal Welfare Board is abolished. The trust accounts are closed down and the remaining funds transferred to the Department of Youth and Community Services. -
Forced control over wages and savings
Forced control over wages and savings (bank books) ceases, although people have to request to be free from financial management. -
Wage is 72% of the state minimum
The government is aware that underpaying reserve workers is illegal; the reserve wage is 72% of the state minimum. -
Equal wages to Aboriginal workers on missions
29 October: The Queensland government pays equal wages to Aboriginal workers on missions. -
$25 million payout to thousands of Indigenous people
31 May: Forced by a growing number of complaints of racial discrimination the Queensland government agrees to make a $25 million payout to thousands of Indigenous people who were employed by previous governments on Aboriginal reserves and paid at wages under the award rate in the years 1975 to 1986. The individual payout is $7,000. It was the first time any Queensland government openly admitted responsibility for discrimination and by far the largest settlement by any employer in respect of a -
2,000 people want to take action against the government
May: The Queensland Aboriginal & Islander Legal Service Secretariat (QAILSS) collects testimony from more than 2,000 people who want to take action against the government for missing, unpaid and underpaid monies. -
69 million dollars were stolen from 11,500 Aboriginal people
A cabinet submission prepared by then Minister for Community Services, Faye Lo Po, reveals 69 million dollars were stolen from 11,500 Aboriginal people by successive NSW governments from 1900 to 1970. The submission was never tabled, but leaked to the National Indigenous Times newspaper in 2004. -
Indigenous Wages and Savings Reparations
9 May: The Queensland government launches the Indigenous Wages and Savings Reparations offer. It is capped at $55.6 million and designed to be distributed to living former workers, but not families of deceased workers. -
Apoligy
11 March: The New South Wales government apologises for the stolen wages and entitlements which occurred under the 1909 Aborigines Protection Act and subsequent laws until 1969.
15 December: The Minister for Community Services, Carmel Tebbutt, announced that the NSW government would establish an Aboriginal Trust Fund Repayment Scheme (ATFRS). It will repay wages or other money that was paid into the Trust Funds between 1900 and 1968 and never repaid. -
National Day of Action
10 December: ANTaR organises a National Day of Action for stolen Aboriginal wages on Human Rights Day. ANTaR estimates that more than $1 billion in today’s value was lost or stolen from Aboriginal families across Australia. -
The Aborigines Welfare Fund
December: The Aborigines Welfare Fund worth $10.8 million is absorbed into a new Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education foundation, which the government says will supply about 100 scholarships a year worth $20,000 each to young Aboriginal people. Also to be absorbed into the foundation will be about $15 million unclaimed from the $55.4 million stolen wages reparations fund set up by the Beattie government in 2002 [1]. -
Larger payouts
April: The NSW government changes the Aboriginal Trust Fund Repayment Scheme to allow a panel consider larger payouts and take into account non-documentary and oral evidence when considering applications. -
2008 Stolen Wages Taskforce report released
March: The Department of Indigenous Affairs in Western Australia finally releases the report of its 2008 Stolen Wages Taskforce.