New South Wales survivors of the stolen generations should be paid reparations under a compensation scheme similar to those established in South Australia and Tasmania, a state parliamentary inquiry has recommended.
Scholarships and priority access to social housing would also help redress lost opportunities suffered by Indigenous Australians as a result of being removed from their families, the upper house committee said, among a total 35 recommendations.
About one in 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are thought to be have been forcibly removed from their families and communities under official government policies between 1910 and 1970.
How many children were taken from the families in NSW is difficult to estimate, but a 1981 study put the figure at around 6,000. The youngest survivors in NSW would be about 46 now.
The committee recommended a “low-documentation”, transparent reparations scheme for those who were removed under the policies, and their descendants.
Eligibility could mirror that of similar schemes in South Australia, where one had to be removed before December 1975 without a court order, or in Tasmania, where the biological children of survivors could also claim compensation.
The 84 survivors compensated in Tasmania were awarded about $58,000 each, their descendants receiving about $5,000, depending on the size of the family group.
Tasmania set aside $5m for compensation, and South Australia $11m, but given the size of NSW’s Indigenous population, the committee estimated the costs to the state would be higher.
It recommended accompanying the payouts with individual apologies and the right to appeal for unsatisfied applicants, the latter of which was lacking in the South Australian scheme.
Healing centres – the setting for a range of services aimed at restoring cultural identity and connection to country – should be established for those who grew up in institutions, it said.
Evidence presented to the inquiry suggested the cost of the centres would be repaid fourfold, “primarily from reduced rates of incarceration and recidivism”.
The state Aboriginal Affairs minister, Leslie Williams, said she welcomed the report and would “work with my cabinet colleagues to consider each and every one of those recommendations”.
