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Greens Senator Rachel Siewert with the Stolen Generations Reparations Tribunal Bill, introduced to the Senate last week.
(Pic: Chris Graham) |
Greens revamp Stolen Gen compo bill to mixed views
Issue 163 - 02 Oct 2008
By Amy McQuire
CANBERRA
ISSUE 163, October 2, 2008: A tribunal to compensate Stolen Generations victims could be established under draft laws introduced to the Senate last week, but Aboriginal leaders have mixed views on whether or not it's the proper path to take.
Greens Senator Rachel Siewert last week tabled the Stolen Generations Reparations Tribunal Bill 2008 in the Senate, aiming to provide a mechanism to compensate members of the Stolen Generations.
The legislation remodels a previous compensation bill put to the Senate by former Democrats Senator Andrew Bartlett earlier in the year.
It proposes a six-person Reparations Tribunal which will decide on appropriate compensation, a recommendation made by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre and the Australian Human Rights Centre in a submission to a Senate inquiry into Senator Bartlett's bill.
Senator Siewert said that the bill was the next step after the Rudd government's national apology, delivered on February 13 this year.
"Along with millions of Australians I welcome the government's national apology to the Stolen Generations. The apology was the first step in redressing the historic injustice of the Stolen Generations," Senator Siewert said.
"The Greens' bill is the next step. It seeks to implement a key recommendation from the Bringing Them Home Report by providing a mechanism to make reparations to the Stolen Generations."
Under the legislation, the Tribunal will be able to award reparations in financial compensation as well as other forms, such as funding for Stolen Generations groups, community genealogy projects and community education programs about the history of forced removals.
In addition, it will also allow ex-gratia payments of up to $20,000, plus $3,000 for each year a child under 18 was removed from his/her family.
Importantly, the bill also makes provision for descendants of members of the Stolen Generations to access the scheme, acknowledging the devastating intergenerational affects of the force removal policies.
Prominent Tasmanian Aboriginal activist Michael Mansell said that he feared individual monetary compensation could be lost in the legislation's communal reparations.
"I fear that so long as you get this broad reparations component involved in the compensation deal, tribunals will take it into account and thereby reduce the amount of money that the individuals will get," Mr Mansell told NIT.
Mr Mansell said that the Tasmanian government's compensation offer of $5 million to Stolen Generations victims was the best way to go.
"The individuals who were removed from Tasmania, whose lives were all but destroyed, received an ex gratia payment and in addition to that the extra services are still available to them because the Commonwealth funds them anyway," Mr Mansell said.
"This idea of introducing broad reparations will mean that individual compensation is swallowed up by the broader funding."
Mr Mansell said compensating Stolen Generations victims was "politically difficult" and he was not confident the federal government would support the bill.
"Kevin Rudd doesn't have to give compensation because he's got all the political kudos from the apology. He has no incentive to pay compensation.
"...If they were genuinely interested they would see that... you've got to do something to compensate for the hardship [the Stolen Generations have] endured."
But although compensation may be a while away, Mr Mansell said Bruce Trevorrow's experience showed that the courts were not the best road to compensation.
"The Bruce Trevorrow case was peculiar. There have been other cases in Australia where the circumstances in which the children were taken were equally as compelling," Mr Mansell said.
"Trevorrow won and they lost. That's an indication that the courts are not the best forums through which Aboriginal people can claim compensation.
"It is better to have a system like in Tasmania, where the federal government and each of the states acknowledge the wrong that the institutions of government contributed to, if not caused."
Mr Mansell said the federal government should establish a $4 billion fund to be distributed equally to the members of the Stolen Generations.
Chair of the Kimberley Stolen Generation Aboriginal Corporation, Mark Bin Bakar said that he welcomed compensation but added that it had to be an amount that recognises the devastation caused to Aboriginal families.
"I support the Greens for pushing the argument for compensation," Mr Bin Bakar told NIT.
"But the compensation has got to be pretty reasonable. It can't be a token amount. It needs to be reasonable in that people can make a difference in what life they have left....
"What we've got to talk about here is the abuse that occurred - the denial of the experience of having a mother, losing language, culture and identity."
Chair of Stolen Generations Victoria, Lyn Austin told NIT that she endorsed the bill. She said time was running out to compensate older Stolen Generations members.
"A lot of members of the Stolen Generations have made the comment that 'I'm 75, or I'm in my 60s, I'd be happy with a little bit for a small amount of comfort'," Ms Austin said.
"Everyone knows we've got that life expectancy gap."
But Stolen Generations Victoria says it is still concerned about the cut-off date of 1975 to be eligible for ex-gratia payments, saying that children were still removed after that date.
The organisation has also raised concerns over eligibility if the Tribunal finds that removal is in "the best interests of the child".
"This is a concern as, as many records will demonstrate, most child removals were considered as 'being in the best interests of the child'," the organisation said in a statement.
Although the bill was introduced last week, it is not yet known when it will be debated. The process could take some months.
 
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