The Greens Want To Give Stolen Generations Survivors $200,000 Each

Greens Senator Lidia Thorpe has unveiled a plan to provide compensation to survivors of the Stolen Generations.

In a proposal outlined this week on the eve of National Sorry Day, Ms Thorpe believes these Indigenous Australians are entitled to $200,000 each.

She highlighted how it's been 24 years since the Bringing Them Home report recommended a National Compensation Fund be established to compensate the roughly 17,150 people still alive who were affected by the horrific government policy.

While there have been several deals announced by state governments over the years, the Greens Senator believes there needs to be a national program.

The Greens' plan believes this compensation will 'accurately reflect the enormous harm they experienced'.

In addition to the $200,000 lump-sum payment, there will be a 'one-off ex gratia payment of $7,000 to each survivor for funeral expenses'.

Ms Thorpe said: "The Stolen Generation are getting older, and we're running out of time to deliver justice. This is about justice, truth-telling, and healing.

"They took our children to break our society. No Government has ever brought peace to the people of the Stolen Generation.

"It's time to reparate. We need to break the cycle and stop the trauma."

Brian Jenkins (Creative Commons)

The Stolen Generations was a government policy passed down through several administrations on both state and federal levels that saw Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children removed from their families and placed into church missions and caucasian households.

Experts reckon between one in ten and one in three Indigenous Australian children were forcibly taken from their families from 1910 and 1970

In some cases, babies were taken from their parents at the hospital shortly after birth.

In Western Australia, the Aborigines Act 1905 meant Indigenous parents were no longer considered legal guardians of their own children and the kids were instead legal wards of the state. The same happened in South Australia, partly thanks to Protector of Aborigines, William Garnet South, who argued 'all children of mixed descent should be treated as neglected'.

A separate law in New South Wales allowed authorities to take children from their households 'without having to establish in court that they were neglected'.

To support the fight against racial injustice visit ladbible.com/unheard

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.

@stewartperrie