Nearly $380 Million In Reparations Will Be Given To Indigenous Australians

The federal government is committing to spend nearly $380 million in reparations to First Nations people.

A massive funding scheme has been announced with the hope of Closing the Gap and reducing the inequality faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

As part of the $1.1 billion package, $378.6 million has been set aside for reparations for those affected by the Stolen Generations in the Northern Territory, the ACT and Jervis Bay Territory.

First Nations people who were taken from their families by the government, church, or welfare groups will be able to apply for the reparation and they are entitled to $75,000 each. The program will begin in March next year and will run for four years.

Minister for Indigenous Australians Ken Wyatt said: "The scheme, for living survivors who were removed as children from their families in then-Commonwealth territories, includes a one-off payment in recognition of the harm caused by forced removal."

The reparation money has been committed more than 20 years after the Bringing Them Home report suggested compensation would help mend relations with First Nations people.

The report said: "When a child was forcibly removed that child's entire community lost, often permanently, its chance to perpetuate itself in that child. The inquiry has concluded that this was a primary objective of forcible removals and is the reason they amount to genocide."

The ACT, Jervis Bay and the NT have been singled out because the Stolen Generations policy was allowed to persist in those territories before they were granted self-government.

Other states have already granted reparation schemes to address the injustices that went on in their jurisdiction.

In addition to the $378.6 million being spent on compensation, the federal government will also spend $254 million on building new health clinics and housing for professionals in remote areas.

There will be $75 million spent on building new boarding schools in remote areas to ensure First Nations people have access to adequate schooling.

"The ultimate test of our efforts is that every Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boy or girl can grow up with the same opportunities and expectations as any other Australian child," Scott Morrison said in Parliament.

"This plan is about real reconciliation, how we get there, and making sure all governments are held to account, state and federal."

There will be $122.6 million spent on an Early Childhood Package, as well as $66 million on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Alcohol and Other Drugs (AOD)Treatment Services.

Mr Morrison has admitted previous pledges, both financal and through policy, have failed to address key issues in Indigenous communities.

The Prime Minister described the Apology to the Stolen Generations as 'a moment of reckoning, and a moment of grace' but conceded the Closing the Gap process has been 'born of the best intentions, remained hard of hearing'.

He's hoping this new approach will right the wrongs in Australia and usher in a new era where First Nations people aren't disadvantaged.

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Featured Image Credit: Australians Together

Topics: Australia

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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