Gerry Georgatos
Yamatji singer/songwriter, rights activist and Stolen Wages campaigner Phill Moncrieff has not given up in the fight for justice for the victims of the Stolen Wages in Western Australia.
In March 2012, the WA government said that the living victims only, and not any of families, will be eligible to apply for upto $2,000 from a Government Trust Scheme. The right to application to these funds has been limited to six months from late March and with the expectation that any further claims are extinguished.
Long time campaigner Mr Moncrieff said this is not acceptable. "The common decency of the 21st century should not allow this blatant abuse of human rights. It shall be profound what the 21st century does about this injustice."
He has lost faith in the incumbent state government to justly compensate the victims of the Stolen Wages however he hopes that the Labor opposition can commit to repealing the government's minimalist offer if they are returned to government.
For 70 years Aboriginal peoples from between the early 1900s to 1972 were subject to laws that other West Australians were not, and in terms of Aboriginal workers on pastoral lands they could have their wages withheld by the Chief Protector and instead receive minimal payments in flour, sugar, tea and some clothing.
Mr Moncrieff said that a massive campaign needs to continue and tap into the common decency of West Australians who do not wish to accept this shame.
"The government says that 1,500 Aboriginal workers still alive who had their wages withheld can apply for paltry amounts up to $2,000 however between 1926 and 1929 alone there were 15,400 dossiers created by the state government on Aboriginal workers however as a recent government report acknowledged they deliberately destroyed many of these dossiers."
Mr Moncrieff said for too long the state government sat on a report on the Stolen Wages, for two years in fact, before being pressured to release its barest of findings, and some of the rest of the reports and other documents were pursued over a long period of time to the Aboriginal Legal Services of WA under the Freedom of Information Act.
"The Stolen Wages Report, which was deliberately kept out of the public interest, kept secret for more than two years, is a flimsy document however indicative of the prejudices and biases."
"Our people never got paid however they were the backbone of the pastoralist industry of WA."
He said the discrimination against them translates to the inter-generational tragedies of today.
"There are still a lot of old people out there today who are waiting to be paid."
"The era of keeping our folk as penniless blacks is over, but the issue itself is not over and done with yet."