Australia to establish $280 mln reparations fund for 'Stolen Generation'
More than 100,000 Aboriginal children were removed from their families and communities
Australia on Thursday (August 5) will create a A$380 million ($280 million) reparations fund for members of its Indigenous population who were forcibly removed from families months after 800 survivors filed a class action lawsuit.
Under the compensation scheme, eligible survivors will receive a one-off A$75,000 payment for the harm caused by their forced removal, plus a further A$7000 to support their healing. The programme is part of a new A$1 billion boost to measures to close the gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, the report said.
More than 100,000 Aboriginal children were removed from their families and communities, and in 2008 then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd led a landmark parliamentary apology to members of the so-called Stolen Generation.
In April, 800 survivors in the Northern Territory launched a class action against the federal government in the New South Wales Supreme Court seeking compensation, covering a period ranging from 1910 to the 1970s.