More than 2,500 people have applied for one-off $85,000 payments under the Western Australian government’s Stolen Generations Redress Scheme so far, but aboriginal advocates say more compensation is needed.
The scheme was announced in May last year with applications opening in November, and if all 2,524 received in the two months since are accepted it will cost the state government about $214 million.
Applicants must be aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and have been “removed from their families as children in Western Australia before 1 July 1972”, or be a family member of an eligible person who died on or after May 27, the date the scheme was announced, and an estimated 3,500 people in total are eligible.
But Jim Morrison, chairperson of Yokai – the West Australian Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation – told The West Australian the one-off payments did not go far enough.
“It is talk between a rock and a hard place in that we can’t deny that compensation should be paid,” Dr Morrison said.
“We can’t deny that our people were treated so badly that any acknowledgement, any amount of money, people are going to snap it up because there’s so much poverty in our communities anyway.
“What will it do to relieve poverty? I don’t think a lot. You can’t really engage the value of $85,000 to individuals when there are so many gaps in services,” he said.
“So when there’s bad gaps in services from a housing point of view, a medical point of view and dreadful rates of incarceration, $85,000 to an old person is bugger all when they’re supporting families and grandchildren.”
Other indigenous figures complained the payments were too low after the May announcement amid comparisons to Victoria’s 2022 scheme, which paid $100,000.
“$85,000 is not a bad payment, not what we expected, we expected more than that, but if that’s all [Premier] Roger [Cook] can give us then we just have to take it and be happy,” said Yokai director Dorothy Bagshaw at the time.
A spokesperson for the state government said payments had already begun, and the overall cost of the scheme would be confirmed after all applications were finalised.
Header image: Premier Roger Cook announcing the scheme’s opening for applications in November (Facebook).
The post Thousands apply for $85K ‘stolen generations’ redress payments first appeared on The Noticer.
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