Australia to make reparations for ‘stolen generation’

Australia will provide one-off cash payments of US$60,000 to many Indigenous Australians who were forcibly removed from their families as children, Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced yesterday, to redress what he described as a "shameful" period in the nation's history. Thousands of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders were taken from their homes and put in foster care with white families under official assimilation policies that persisted into the 1970s. "What happened is a shameful chapter in our national story," Morrison told parliament of the "Stolen Generation" of Indigenous Australians. "We have already confronted it with the national apology but our deeds must continue to match our words," he said. Campaigners for the rights of Indigenous Australians, who remain heavily disadvantaged in terms of health, income and education, welcomed the announcement but said it was long overdue. Morrison said US$280 million would be allocated to redress the human damage of the assimilation policy. The "Stolen Generation" reparations are the centrepiece of a so-called Closing the Gap plan, supported by the conservative coalition government and the opposition, which also sets out an array of reforms and goals for improving the lives of Indigenous Australians.