Australia's shameful history of slave labour
Sat 07 January 2006
Sue Brooks, Social Science
Thousands of Aboriginal people in communities across Australia are living impoverished lives as a direct result of government negligence, fraud and official misappropriation of Aboriginal savings accounts and trust funds.
From 1904 the Australian state governments controlled all Aboriginal employment, wages and savings under compulsory labour contracts. Under the Queensland Protection Act of 1897 all Australian Aboriginal people were automatically made wards of the state and forcibly interned on reserves.
Aboriginal men, women and children were contracted out for 51 weeks of the year as cheap labour to support the Australian pastoral industry. Those who did not comply with government labour contracts in the state of Queensland were sent to remote Palm Island. 
Workers' wages went directly into trust funds, apart from 'pocket money', which was held, often permanently, by employers for workers' use during the contract period.
Government-appointed administrators had full control over all Aboriginal wages and savings, which workers and their families were routinely denied permission to access.
There is well-documented evidence of negligence, fraud, and official misappropriation of Aboriginal savings accounts and Aboriginal Trust Funds under government supervision.
Numerous examples have been highlighted on the Australians for Native Title and Reconciliation Queensland website's stolen wages facts sheet. The Queensland Government was aware of, and was frequently warned of, police fraud and corruption involved in the thumb print system concerning Aboriginal savings. Despite this knowledge the Queensland Government refused to allow workers to check their transactions.
During this time the Queensland Government had confiscated bank interest, imposed levies on savings, frozen vast amounts of desperately needed cash in investments and retained surplus interest. In spite of the government's duty as financial trustee of Aboriginal Trust Funds, active breaches of trust, intentional negligence and dishonesty continued.
Aboriginal forced contract labour continued until 1968. At this time Aboriginal wages were still only 50 per cent of state minimum wages. Compulsory government control over wages and savings ceased to be enforced in 1972, but Aboriginal people were still required to make an official request to be freed from financial management. 
Aboriginal people were not counted in the official census until 1967 when citizenship and the right to vote were granted.
Other matters in dispute include the Queensland Government's deliberate violation of minimum wage laws for reserve workers. The Government continued to grossly under-pay workers on reserves despite the warnings that these wages were insufficient for family maintenance and produced extreme poverty.
ATSIC (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission) News, June 2004, reported the National Indigenous Times newspaper uncovered a suppressed cabinet document from 2001.
This document showed at least $A69.4 million in Aboriginal wages, private savings, pensions and child endowment payments had gone to the Government Trust Fund.
The New South Wales (NSW) State Government still holds this money, which was taken from an estimated 11,500 Aboriginal workers, mothers and beneficiaries who continue to live in poverty.
NSW Premier, Bob Carr, made a formal apology to the Aboriginal community after the disclosure of the document and subsequent exposure of the NSW Government's failure to act on the matter. The Premier also assured the Aboriginal people that reparations would be made.
“Any individual who can establish they are owed money they will have it returned,” he said. However, Premier Carr also highlighted the barriers that claimants confront. “The difficulty here is that there are no records—the records have vanished," he said.
ATSIC News also reported that the document stated previous NSW Governments had withheld access to Aboriginal wages and benefits out of a belief that “Aboriginal people were not capable of managing their finances.” As ATSIC News has pointed out, this is ironic considering the evidence of fraud and mismanagement on the part of NSW State Government officials.
Ros Kidd and Christine Howes, authors of Stolen Wages, Stolen lives; Government paybacks?, said that in order to pre-empt litigation, the Queensland Government has made a ‘once only offer' to compensate Aboriginal people for lost finances.
Queensland Premier Peter Beattie admitted in May 2002 that it was impossible to say for certain how much each worker was owed and he did not dispute the $A500 million estimate of total financial loss for Aboriginal people.
However, his government has offered only $A55.6 million, which would average out to individual distributions of $A4000 to people aged over 50 and $A2,000 to people aged 45-50. This offer requires claimants to indemnify the government against any legal action. The denied access to government evidence of financial, work, and savings history makes accurate assessments of claimants' losses impossible.
Australian Federal Senator, Aden Ridgeway, has urged the state governments to do the right thing and reach a fair solution in compensating the Aboriginal people for the stolen wages.
“We know there is strong evidence within NSW archives and overwhelming anecdotal evidence about control and loss of wages,” Senator Ridgeway said.“What is lacking is a willingness on the part of all state governments to disclose what they are holding in their archives about the extent of lost and stolen wages belonging to Aboriginal people.”
According to an ATSIC News report in June 2004, Queensland's Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Policy received 6281 claims for compensation between May 2003 and March 2004 arising from ‘stolen wages'.
Links, sources and further reading:
Byrne, M., Green Left Weekly Online Edition, Repay the stolen wages! http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/592/592p9.htm [2004, Oct 16].
Kidd, R., April 9 2004, Stolen Wages- A National Issue, http://www.griffith.edu.au/centre/cpci/pdf/ros_kidd_garma.pdf [2004, Oct 14].
Grimm, N., The World Today, Wednesday February 4 2004 12:34:00,NSW stolen wages report: Aboriginal Australians owed millions, http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2004/s1037902.htm [2004, Oct 15].
Kidd, R. & Howes, C., Stolen Wages, Stolen Lives; Government Payback? http://www.amrc.org.hk/4807.htm [2004, Oct 16].
Image(s) designed by Sue Brooks