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Aboriginal Australians owed millions

Reporter: Nick Grimm

4 February , 2004 - HAMISH ROBERTSON: A leaked New South Wales Government report shows that Aboriginal people in the state are owed tens of millions of dollars. There are also fears that some of the money has been rorted by public servants and employers for many years. It's estimated that more than 11,000 indigenous Australians could be entitled to a share of the funds, amounting to as much as $70 million.

Nick Grimm reports.

NICK GRIMM: For much of the last century, Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders weren't classed as Australian citizens, and did not have the right to vote. But one privilege they did enjoy, during those less enlightened times, was the right to work and earn money. Problem was, many never saw the wages that were collected and held in trust for them by state governments around the country.

RICK GRIFFITHS: I'm totally shocked by the fact of the magnitude of the money that's been rorted from our people.

NICK GRIMM: New South Wales ATSIC Commissioner Rick Griffiths.

RICK GRIFFITHS: You know, our people earnt that money, it's rightfully theirs, and the current Government has done all they can to get away from actually paying those people their proper entitlements.

NICK GRIMM: Still, efforts are underway to see that legacy passed on. Already the Queensland Government has offered some compensation to those owed money. Now, the New South Wales Government is the latest state grappling with the problem.

Between 1900 and 1970, trust funds established by the New South Wales Government accumulated funds from a variety of sources, including pension payments, child endowment, apprentice wages, inheritances and compensation payouts.

MARJORIE WOODROW: We had to sign a form they sent us out to our jobs, that we would receive our money when we turn 21.

NICK GRIMM: Eighty-year-old Marjorie Woodrow is a former state ward whose wages were paid into the trust fund over 60 years ago.

MARJORIE WOODROW: Then I waited then after I got married and lived in a tent for six years waiting for the cheque to arrive, which I never ever got.

NICK GRIMM: Neil Shepherd is the Director-General of the New South Wales Department of Community Services.

NEIL SHEPHERD: Basically, the monies were not returned to those people and we have a situation where the records are very poor, some people have come forward claiming the amounts – they're usually for relatively small amounts when they were paid into those trust funds, but of course, the amounts would be larger now.

NICK GRIMM: Three years ago, the former minister for community services in New South Wales, Faye Lo Po prepared a report on the trust funds, concluding some of the money had been misappropriated by public servants or never paid in the first place by employers.

The former minister also found evidence suggesting the government had deliberately withheld the money from its rightful owners, money which it's estimated could now have increased to as much as $70 million.

NEIL SHEPHERD: I think there are substantial questions about how the money has been managed over the years.

NICK GRIMM: The minister's report was never made public until it was leaked this week to the National Indigenous Times.

Doctor Neil Shepherd again.

NEIL SHEPHERD: It remains in some form in the Treasury funds. I doubt that it is now an identified amount of money.

NICK GRIMM: Marjorie Woodrow meanwhile, simply wants her money, and an end to the delays which she says have caused her frustration for decades.

MARJORIE WOODROW: I've been sent to this minister and that minister and never… nothing, no response from it whatsoever.

NICK GRIMM: Let's get this straight Marjorie Woodrow – you were earning this money before you were 18, you're 80 now, so we're talking about 62 years it's taken for anything to happen?

MARJORIE WOODROW: Yes, I tried in 1950, it was my first attempt. Now, there's not only me, there's a lot of us, there's a terrible lot of people out there that's in the same circumstances as me.

NICK GRIMM: Do you have any idea, have you made any estimate of what it might be worth to you now?

MARJORIE WOODROW: Well, the estimate that we have worked out about $90,000, and that's without interest.

NICK GRIMM: $90,000?

MARJORIE WOODROW: Yes.

NICK GRIMM: Marjorie Woodrow, can you just explain what sort of work you had to do to earn the money that went into that trust account on your behalf?

MARJORIE WOODROW: There was housework – washing, cooking, you name it – and when it was on the farm it was mustering sheep because there was men short and you still had to do your work as well. Oh, she was tough going, I tell you.

HAMISH ROBERTSON: Former state ward, Marjorie Woodrow. Nick Grimm with that report.

Source: ABC News

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Further information:

• Stolen wages, missing Trust funds : The fight for justice in Queensland
  Article by Dr Ros Kidd
• Media reports

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