Dr Ros Kidd
Historian - Consultant - Writer
Stolen Wages – A National Issue
I would like to acknowledge the Yolngu people and thank them for
allowing me to visit this beautiful Gumatj country, and I’d also like to
pay my respects to the elders of the many clan groups gathered here for
Garma.
My name is Ros Kidd. I am a mother and grandmother from Brisbane,
Queensland. I am affiliated with Griffith University Brisbane which has
sponsored my visit to the Garma Festival to speak with you today. Ten
years ago I completed my PhD thesis which investigated how Queensland
governments controlled the lives and finances of Aboriginal people. I
read thousands of church and government files and correspondence and was
horrified by what I learned. I have been fighting for justice on this
issue ever since.
At present, the Queensland government has around $100 million on the
table to avoid legal action by Aboriginal workers and families. The New
South Wales government recently said it would pay back all money it owes
to Aboriginal workers – this could be as high as $70 million. Today I
want to give you the background for these offers. I’ll look first at
Queensland where we have a vast amount of evidence revealing official
negligence, frauds and misuse of Aboriginal Trust monies. Then look
briefly at whether financial controls in other states might reveal
similar negligence and misuse. And close with the current position in
our long fight for justice on what we call the Stolen Wages.
Stolen Wages – Queensland
From 1890s-1970 men, women and children were contracted out to work.
They had no control over wage rates and no direct access wages and
savings which went directly to government agents usually police
protectors. From 1919 the government said pastoral workers would get 66%
the white wage, but records show that in 1949 workers got only 31%. In
fact in every year between 1941-1956 the government sold Aboriginal
labour for less than the 66% rate. That is a massive loss of wages over
15 years due to government negligence.
From the early 1900s the government was constantly warned workers were
likely to be cheated of their pocket money, the only cash they got while
they worked, yet it never fixed the system. Auditors in the mid-1960s
said there was no way of knowing whether it was ever properly paid
during all those years. Fraud on Aboriginal savings by police
protectors was so common thumbprints were introduced in 1904 and again
in 1921. In 1933 bulk savings were centralised in Brisbane specifically
to reduce police fraud. Yet in 1941 a Report found there were still no
effective checks of police dealings on Aboriginal money. Even in the
mid-1960s auditors said there was no way of knowing whether witnessed
receipts were in fact authentic.
So there is documented long term failure of government to protect the
wage rates, pocket money and savings of the Aboriginal workers it
controlled, despite countless warnings that people were being cheated.
Evidence shows the government itself raided Aboriginal monies. It
intercepted federally-paid maternity allowances from 1912 and child
endowment from 1941, and paid only a fraction through to the mothers.
We now know that in the late 1940s endowment was used for refrigerators
in settlement dormitories. In the mid-1950s when infant mortality on
government settlements was 6 times higher than in the white
community, the government used child endowment for buildings and
machinery.
Before they came available in 1960, the government planned how it would
intercept old age, invalid and widows pensions; these were partly
streamed to consolidated revenue although there was no legal authority
to do so. From the late 1960s to the early 1980s child endowment was
still merged through the department’s main Trust Fund which covered
operational costs of government settlements. Successive audit reports
and internal Reports show several Trust funds built up from Aboriginal
savings and deceased estates were commonly and improperly used for items
which were the liability of government.
During the depression years 1929-32 almost $5 million (today’s value)
was stripped from the Trust funds and never repaid; in the late 1930s
the government flouted auditors warnings and continued to appropriate
Aboriginal earnings to cover State costs. In 1943 a new Trust Fund, the
Aboriginal Welfare Fund, was established, and, according to department
directors and auditors it was continually misused by government; in fact
an internal Report in 1991 found negligence bordered on criminality. The
Welfare Fund was frozen in 1993 and currently has a balance of around $9
million. The true value, however, is likely to be many times that
amount.
Stolen Wages – other States
I haven’t accessed primary records from other States, so this summary is
gleaned from others who’ve done so, including my colleague Dr Anna
Haebich with regard to Western Australia. It seems that in States with
smaller Aboriginal populations (NSW, Victoria, South Australia and
Tasmania), Stolen Wages comprise the wages of children apprenticed to
work from missions and Homes, and entitlements such as child endowment.
Hundreds of children were processed through institutions and sent to
work as cheap labour until the age of 18 or 21, and many say they did
not receive their pocket money during the work period, or
that final balances were underpaid or unpaid when they were released
from State controls. As adults they could claim standard rates of pay
and conditions in the general community; in reality they had to take
what they could get. There is now evidence that some of the child
endowment of mothers on mission stations was kept by the government. It
was only after 1960, in Victoria and NSW, that pensioners were directly
paid. The NSW government recently admitted, although not publicly, that
it withheld money from wages, pensions, endowment and workers’
compensation. In 1930 alone, this government took over $1.3million
(today) from mothers’ endowment; till now government policy was to deny
it held any Trust monies.
In WA from 1874 any Aboriginal child could be institutionalised and
apprenticed to work from age 12 to 21, although after 1886 they were
sent out even younger. Between 1915-1920 over 500 people, that is one
quarter of the population in southern WA, were deported to missions and
stations from where children could be sent out to work. The Welfare
Board continued deportations until 1954, and kept guardianship of
children until 1963. Supervision of child endowment payments ceased in
southern WA by 1950, but ten years later there were still no controls
over distribution of child endowment by pastoralists in the north. In
the 1970s, the northern missions in WA were still receiving massive bulk
child endowment payments. How much of this money actually went to the
mothers?
Laws in WA provided for labour contracts from 1886, but these were not
compulsory and made no mention of cash wages. The 1905 Aborigines Act
made no mention of labour or cash wages due to aggressive lobbying by
pastoralists. By 1915 department file cards often included employment
details, and part of the
wages of younger wards went into Trust accounts, money which most never
saw again. Although wages were commonly paid south of the Pilbara from
around 1915, in the Kimberleys, which had an Aboriginal labour force of
over 2000 in the 1930s, wages there were not fixed by law until 1967.
Welfare Board controls over Aboriginal earnings and property continued
in WA until 1963.
Development of the Northern Territory was similarly dependent on unpaid
Aboriginal labour. Although the 1910 Act allowed for payment of wages
into a trust account via the police or the protector, there was no
compulsion for cash payment. When the Commonwealth took control in 1910
a new Ordinance stated all wages must be paid in cash, but calls for a
minimum wage were dismissed out of hand; in fact many pastoralists paid
no cash wages for another 30 years. A Report in 1928 said rations were
frequently withheld as punishment and there was much starvation and
sickness. In this context it is horrifying to note that pastoralists
were still authorised as ration distributors for the Commonwealth until
1966.
Between 1910 and 1957 the NT chief protector was legal guardian of all
Aboriginal children under 18 years; hundreds of children were sent to
town compounds and government stations and then apprenticed out. While
apprenticed boys were free from 18 years of age, after 1918 unmarried
girls and women were controlled till death; they could be sent to work
for no wages and had no rights over their own children. By the 1930s
many workers were still paid in rations or by ‘value’ through the
station stores. Most boys on pastoral stations were retained for labour,
but girls were commonly exiled to church missions or institutions for
employment training. For town-based workers, 40% of the wages went
directly to Trust accounts and after 1934 individual bank accounts could
be opened for balances greater than ₤2. In 1948 the Commonwealth
Conciliation and Arbitration Commission refused an application to bring
Aboriginal workers under the pastoral award because it would ‘interfere’
with arrangements between pastoralists and the Northern Territory
administration.
Removals of children, now from as young as three months, continued
post-war, and from 1953 the director of welfare was guardian of all
wards and controlled their property. Cheap labour continued in the
pastoral industry into the 1970s. In the NT, as in Queensland,
department bureaucrats planned how to divert child endowment monies to
capital works which were patently state responsibilities; in the NT
endowment went into construction of schools, dormitories and hospital
clinics. In 1964, according to investigations by Dr Haebich, social
security benefits still provided 40% of mission incomes in the NT and
far exceeded state support to pastoralists acting as ration stations.
The fight for justice
Because we hold so much detailed and incriminating evidence, Queensland
leads the way in the fight for justice over Stolen Wages. In 1996 seven
workers from Palm Island settlement won a Human Rights and Equal
Opportunity Commission case against the government for the deliberate
underpayment of wages between 1975-1986. (Underpayment on the basis of
race was illegal after enactment of the federal Racial Discrimination
Act 1975; after 1986 community councils controlled wage rates). The
plaintiffs won compensation of $7000 each. The Beattie Labor government
fought and lost several more cases, before offering all community
employees from this period $7000, expecting the total to reach $25
million. This offer closed end of last year and cost the government
almost $40million. Many workers have rejected the payment because it is
conditional on relinquishing all rights to pursue justice through the
courts.
Meanwhile the fight for Stolen Wages and entitlements such as child
endowment, intensified. By May 2002 the Beattie government had almost
4000 potential litigants lining up against it, and it offered a $55.4
million package to everyone whose finances had been controlled. But this
is an insult: it is only $2000 for people between ages 45-49, and $4000
for those aged 50 and over. Yet we know many people worked for 30 or 40
years and got little in their hands due to government ‘management’ of
their money. The government refuses to acknowledge any liability for
decades of official negligence and misuse. It refuses to extend
compensation to families of workers who died before the May 2002 who
also suffered financial loss. My estimation is that the government debt
to its wards might exceed $500 million. Again, payment is conditional on
people forfeiting their legal rights, yet the government will not give
everyone the personal records it holds about their wages and banking. We
have been advised this demand for indemnity may be illegal in that
context. Despite desperate poverty, around 60% of eligible claimants
have rejected this pittance.
During 2002 a Stolen Wages Working Group consolidated to mount a public
campaign for justice. Unions nationally have taken up the cause, holding
workplace meetings, donating to a fighting fund, and running our
information in newsletters and websites. 4AAA Indigenous radio which
broadcasts nationally, and the National Indigenous Times
newspaper out of NSW, are major supporters of our campaign. The Stolen
Wages Working Group is working with a range of Brisbane lawyers who have
offered to act protector bono for individuals wanting to take legal
action for full compensation. Some Under Award Wage cases have been
settled out of court at many times the $7000 offered by the government.
Given the wealth of incriminating evidence, there is little doubt many
Stolen Wage cases could be similarly successful. Class actions are
planned.
Nervous of Queensland’s position, a couple of months ago the NSW
government offered to repay all monies it still holds which belong to
Aboriginal workers and mothers. Unlike Queensland, the NSW government
does not revoke people’s right to pursue justice through the courts. But
both governments resolutely refuse to allow a public independent inquiry
into their shameful financial dealings.
So how can we expose these dealings to the general public which believes
government spin that paying a pittance is an act of generosity in the
name of reconciliation? How can we put State governments on trial and
win an independent assessment of their liabilities? Anna has mentioned
the Stolen Wages panel and workshops which Griffith University will be
hosting in Brisbane in mid-October. This is an enormously important
event. We need to charge governments with breaching their duty to the
Aboriginal people they forced into their care and control. I will
provide evidence such as I’ve mentioned today, Justice Marcus Einfeld
will discuss the legal prospects, and Elouise Cobell will speak of the
success of the Indian class action in forcing just this level of
accountability on the United States government.
But this is much more than an issue of money. This is also about truth
in our history. The vast majority of non-indigenous Australians have no
idea of the enormous debt they owe to the Aboriginal men, women and
children whose labour built this country. They have no idea that many
workers would have had money and freedom to prosper if governments had
not stifled their choices, ignored unpaid and underpaid labour, and
misused their earnings and entitlements.
This historical awakening is the focus of a National Report which I am
in the process of organising. For a year we have tried to get funding to
cover minimal costs. Unfortunately this is seen as a political issue and
we have failed. No matter, we will proceed anyway. We are relying on a
core group of volunteers in each state – historians, researchers,
lawyers etc – to investigate labour controls and financial management.
We are hoping that workers and their families might share their stories
with us. We want to put together a national picture – such as we have
for Queensland – which we will use as a platform to demand a fully
funded independent national inquiry. It is time all Australians knew the
truth of their history. It is time all governments faced the magnitude
of their debts.
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