MEDIA RELEASE – 17th November 2022
Petition for Stolen Generations Compensation Tabled in State Parliament
At this year’s Sorry Day Commemoration on 26th May, we marked 25 years since the tabling of the landmark report into the Stolen Generations, the “Bringing Them Home Report”, and on that day we launched a Petition to the Legislative Council in the WA Parliament calling for Compensation for Stolen Generations Survivors in line with two of the recommendations from that Report.
When the Petition was launched, Jim Morrison, the Chair of the Western Australian Stolen Generations Aboriginal Corporation, highlighted the significant unfinished business from the Bringing Them Home Report. He stated: “Only a handful of the 54 recommendations in the Bringing Them Home Report have been properly implemented by Commonwealth or State Governments! The recommendations fall under 3 broad headings – Truth, Justice and Healing and they need to be considered as part of an integrated package and not cherry picked by Governments. We need to tell the Truth about these policies of child removal and their impact on Aboriginal families and we need to provide proper justice and healing for Stolen Generations Survivors and their families!”
Today we were delighted to be at Parliament House with Hon. Brad Pettit MLC, who tabled the Petition on our behalf. Tony Hansen, the Aboriginal Co-Chair of Bringing Them Home WA stated: “Whilst most States have implemented compensation schemes that are broadly consistent with Recommendations 3 and 4 in the Bringing Them Home Report, sadly this has not happened in Western Australia! Consequently, we are delighted that this Petition to the Legislative Council has been tabled with over 1300 signatures”.
“We are calling on the Legislative Council to set up a Committee Inquiry into Stolen Generations Compensation Schemes which have been established in other States, with a view to recommending the establishment of a similar scheme in this State. It would be a great disappointment and a travesty of justice if Stolen Generations Survivors in Western Australia were left as the only Survivors in Australia who have not been properly compensated!”
NOTE: The Bringing Them Home Report was tabled in the Federal Parliament on 26th May 1997 after an extensive Inquiry conducted by the late Sir Ronald Wilson and respected Aboriginal Lawyer, Mick Dodson. It is now 25 years since that report was provided to the Federal Government and sadly most of the 54 recommendations have not been implemented. For detailed background:
Bringing them Home Report (1997) | Australian Human Rights Commission
Bringing-Them-Home-20-years-on-FINAL-SCREEN-1.pdf (healingfoundation.org.au)
For further comment:
Jim Morrison Mobile: 0408 917 133
Tony Hansen Mobile: 0417 610 412
See also the article by National Indigenous Times – https://www.nit.com.au/petition-for-stolen-generations-redress-tabled-in-wa-parliament/
Bringing Them Home WA 
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