Another State Budget has been handed down and Stolen Generations Survivors and their families continue to be frustrated that the Budget makes no provision for Stolen Generations Compensation. “This is a major omission and a big “black hole” in the State Budget!
It is nearly 27 years since the Bringing Them Home Report recommended that compensation be paid to Stolen Generations Survivors (Recommendations 3 and 4). Successive WA Governments continue to ignore this issue despite the fact that almost all of the other States have put a compensation scheme in place!” according to Bringing Them Home WA Co-Chair and Stolen Generations Survivor, Tony Hansen.
“Based on the compensation package paid in Victoria in recent years and our estimate that there are approximately 6,000 Stolen Generations Survivors still alive in WA, this means that there is a $600 million omission from State Government expenditure in the Forward Estimates!”, according to Jim Morrison, the Chief Executive of the West Australian Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation.
“We call on all WA Parliamentarians to work with us to resolve this “unfinished business”! Jim Morrison concluded.
Further comment:
Tony Hansen 0417 610 412, or
Jim Morrison 0408 917 133
NOTE: Jim Morrison and Tony Hansen are in Albany for a Screening of our recently released documentary, “Genocide in the Wildflower State”, which clearly demonstrates that the State sponsored policies of removing Aboriginal Children from their families were genocidal and that consequently reparation should be paid under the terms of the United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, which was ratified by the Australian Government in 1949.