[Greens-Media] Aboriginal families condemned to generational poverty

[Paul Sheridan]

Media Release				16 December,
2004					
Aboriginal families condemned to generational poverty

Many of the families and relatives of Aboriginal people who had wages
stolen from them decades ago have been condemned to generational poverty
and may never be able to build a quality of life their descendents had
wished to hand on to them, Greens MLC Ian Cohen said today.

The NSW Government has announced it will repay only $15 million to
families and descendents who had wages stolen from them as early as the
1920s and up until the late 1960s, despite earlier estimates being close
to $70 million.

"The money owed to thousands of Aboriginal families reflects more than
just the interest payments they may have lost.

"These families have been consistently denied the opportunity to
participate in a real economy and as a result have always been on the
back foot, unable to use those wages to build a foundation for the
future.

"This state government is now as guilty as the ones before it for
denying some Aboriginal people the chance to break a cycle of poverty.
Consistent denial entrenches generational poverty and that is a crime
this government will be remembered for." 

"Aboriginal people simply want what they are owed. Instead, the NSW
Government has chosen to pay back the bare minimum it had to."

Mr Cohen said the original payback proposal the government has had
since 2001 suggested that $69 million was possible, even before
calculations could be made on money also owed but not recorded due to
lost or faulty paperwork and records. 

"This is not the state's money to bestow or withhold within budget
comfort. This is Aboriginal earnings and entitlements that the state as
trustee was legally bound to safeguard.

"Aboriginal people have been cheated of their wages, their child
endowment entitlements and their inheritances."


Further Information: Paul Sheridan, 0410 516 656