What is Borbidge complaining about with this one? If these people have been 'illegally' underpaid for 11 years, then they're likely to be owed a lot of money. That's real money... money they should have, to absence of which would be affecting their lives today. Why would anyone think they weren't entitled to it? We wouldn't want to open the floodgates and pay people what they are entitled to, would we? $7000/11 is less than $700 a year. I bet they were underpaid by a lot more than that! Does anyone know the real figure on the degree of of underpayment? Glenn Murray Technical Writer -----Original Message----- From: Trudy Bray [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 1999 9:58 AM To: news-clip Subject: The Courier-Mail: Aborigines win payment deal Aborigines win payment deal 1jun99 THE State Government will pay $25million compensation to Aborigines who worked for nearly quarter of a century for below-award wages. Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy Judy Spence said 3500 Aboriginal and Islander people would be offered $7000 each. The money, along with an official apology, will be offered by way of compensating both lost wages and "humiliation". The funds will come from a one-off allocation in the September Budget and the Government hopes to settle all matters within two years. The offers covers those who worked for the state government between 1975 and 1986. Aborigines and Islanders working on reserves as tradesmen, teachers aides, and hospital workers were underpaid for most of this century. But when the Commonwealth Racial Discrimination Act came into force in 1975 it became illegal to underpay on the basis of race. Despite that, the government continued to continue the practice for 11 years, arguing it could not afford to pay regular wages. The Opposition has expressed concern the offer will open the compensation floodgate. Some claimants are known to be seeking lost earnings of more than $20,000. Opposition Leader Rob Borbidge said those who were seeking more than $7000 could leave the Government with a potentially crippling compensation bill. "After saying sorry last week (over the stolen generation) he's saying sorry this week with the cheque book owned by taxpayers," Mr Borbidge said. Ms Spence said the gesture was in the best interests of Queenslanders from both a financial and moral perspective. The Government wanted to avoid costly and drawn-out legal battles, she said. The Foundation for Aboriginal and Islander Research Action, which has been advocating on behalf of former workers for several years, estimates 3500 living indigenous Queenslanders are eligible for compensation. Foundation general manager Les Malezer indicated many Aborigines would welcome and accept the offer. "From experience we know that this is the offer people have been looking for," he said. "It's money in their hands. It looks as though this is a government that is going to be co-operative." ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
