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Katter party fights for stolen Indigenous wages

The Katter Australian Party is taking the side of Indigenous Queenslanders, calling on the state's crime watchdog to investigate why $20 million in stolen wages has not been paid back.

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2 min read

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By Stefan Armbruster

Source: AAP, SBS


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The Katter Australian Party (KAP) is taking the side of Indigenous Queenslanders, calling on the state's crime watchdog to investigate why $20 million in stolen wages has not been paid back.

But Queensland's Labor government in 2009 closed claims for stolen wages in 2009 and the current Liberal National government says it won't revisit the issue.

"We're calling on this government to come clean, to provide that amount to them that is owing, and recognise the contribution that they made to building up our country," MP Robbie Katter told SBS.

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The KAP says it plans to table a complaint in parliament this week which will lodge with the state's anti-corruption watchdog, the Crime and Misconduct Commission.

"It's still affecting us today, the descendants of dad and mum, grandma Mum Mable. She went through all the hassle of not getting paid properly, cups of sugar and flour," said Katter Party candidate Les Muckan.

In 2002, the Beattie government in Queensland offered more than $50 million in compensation to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders who had their wages stolen from the early 1900s to the 1970s.

But not all that money was paid out and the Bligh government spent about $21 million from the fund on schools, indigenous stolen wages' campaigners have told AAP.


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