Labor's commitment to Stolen Generations reparations

Excerpt from Linda Burney’s address to the House of Representatives - Monday, 9 August 2021

Labor’s commitment to Stolen Generations compensation

In the few remaining minutes that I have, I want to quickly touch on the fact that Labor welcomes the establishment of a stolen generations compensation scheme. It was Labor that took stolen generations reparations to the last election: $75,000 in compensation plus $7,000 in auxiliary payments. We welcome the government coming onboard with this, never forgetting that there are members of this chamber today who walked out on the National Apology to the Stolen Generations 13½ years ago. We know that the Rudd Labor government's commencement of the national effort to close the gap as part of the National Apology to the Stolen Generations was in recognition of the issue of stolen generations. It recognises that the disparities and inequities we see today are inexplicably linked to the deprivation that arose from those paternalistic and misguided policies that the minister has outlined with his own family.