Government withholds money from pension payments for Aboriginal leprosy patients

In the 1950s and 1960s, the government quarantined patients in leprosy facilities for treatment. The government supported patients in facilities with Invalid Pension, but applied different rules to Aboriginal patients and other patients.  

This file concerns payments withheld from Aboriginal leprosy patients in the 1960s. It contains letters between multiple federal government departments from 1964 to 1967. 

Payments split 

The file shows that in 1964, there were 74 Aboriginal patients at East Arm Leprosarium in the Northern Territory.  

People were entitled to receive £11 a fortnight as Invalid Pension. However, Aboriginal patients only got £1.10.0 of this amount in cash, as ‘pocket money’, with a further £2.10.0 paid into their bank account. The Department of Health took the remaining £7.10.0 as ‘maintenance’. By contrast, other non-Aboriginal patients received their payments in full. 

Withheld ‘maintenance’ accumulates 

From 1961 to 1964, the amount of money from maintenance payments came to more than £52,000. But this file shows that Aboriginal patients did not benefit from this money and it remained with the Department of Health. 

The government departments discussing the issue in the file disagreed about what to do with the accumulated money.  

The Department of Health wanted to spend it building a pool at the leprosarium to help patients recover. Treasury said it should go into a trust for the patients, rather than general revenue. The Department of Territories argued the government should treat leprosarium patients equally by paying their pensions in full.  

‘Maintenance’ money not passed on 

In early 1967, the Department of Social Services advised it had begun to pay pensions directly to the Aboriginal patients. 

But the issue of the collected maintenance payments funds remained unresolved. This amount now totalled almost $180,000. This included the original £52,000 collected between 1961 and 1964, and $67,000 paid into a trust since 1964. (In 1966, Australia changed to decimal currency.) 

Some of this money was moved into a trust fund maintained by the Northern Territory Administration. Treasury questioned the departments involved about how individual people or their families would get the money owed.  

By the end of the file, the matter remains unresolved and it’s not clear how these funds that were owed to the patients were paid to them. 

The file is another example of the government allowing Aboriginal people’s payments to be withheld for ‘maintenance’ purposes, a practice that was common on missions and stations at this time.