[Greens-Media] Stolen Generations’ Reparations Draws Closer With Committee Support

[Franks, Office]

Greens’ Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation spokesperson Tammy Franks MLC has welcomed support by members of both the Labor and Liberal parties of the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee’s (ALPSC) inquiry into her 2010 Stolen Generations’ Reparations Tribunal Bill.

Ms Franks said: “A reparations tribunal intended to address the historical wrongs of the Stolen Generations is long overdue. At State and Commonwealth Government levels we have now recognised the hurt and harm caused to the Stolen Generations by way of a formal apology.

“Saying ‘Sorry’ is just a start. If we continue to only have a system for recompense which forces Aboriginal people into our expensive and adversarial courts system, we prove not only that we haven’t learnt the lessons of our past, but that we are destined to prolong the pain.

“Sorry means not only taking that responsibility for past action, but pledging to do better in the future. Through the process of a two year inquiry into the Greens’ bill for a Stolen Generations Reparations Tribunal the cross-party committee of Labor, Liberal and Greens members has reported to the Parliament there is a better way forward. The model recommended by the Committee adopts that applied in Tasmania, the only jurisdiction to deliver a Stolen Generations’ Reparations Tribunal to date.

“Whilst as a nation and as a state we have taken that first step and formally apologised to the Stolen Generations, it is now time to take the next step in South Australia, as Tasmania before us has done.

“The cross-party committee has looked at my original Bill and recommended a process that will provide both recognition for the emotional, physical and cultural harms that people were subject to as a result of policies and practices of past State Governments. It will enable a more respectful, kinder, and indeed for the budget bottom-line, a much cheaper pathway for reparations.

“Survivors of the Stolen Generation and their families will not receive justice just yet – but this lays the foundation for future action that will provide a long-overdue redress.

“I trust both Labor and Liberal parties will take this issue to the State Election poll as a promise which must be delivered in 2014, regardless of who becomes Premier in March,” Ms Franks concluded.


The 1997 Bringing them Home Report estimated that between one in ten to one in three of all indigenous children were removed from their families under Government policies up until the 1970s.


To arrange further comment contact Tammy Franks on 0406 729 981

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