Artefacts about Government Discussions

Government officials reported on how managers of missions, stations and settlements were using government payments for Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory. They collected minimal information from Aboriginal payment recipients.

During the 1960s, there was increasing pressure for Aboriginal pastoral workers to get equal wages. The government was reluctant to grant Unemployment Benefit payments to Aboriginal workers who were likely to be affected by changes to wages.

Aboriginal leprosy patients in the Northern Territory received only a fraction of their pension payments in the 1960s, while other patients got their benefits in full. Government officials disagreed about how to spend the withheld payments and the money went unaccounted for.

Aboriginal people living on stations and missions only received part of their government payment to manage themselves. In 1965, officials met to discuss how much this should be and how to standardise the amount people got.

Activist and Member of Parliament, Gordon Bryant, questioned the Minister for Social Services about how DSS checked whether Aboriginal people on reserves, missions and stations were getting their payments.

In the 1960s, DSS was questioned about their policy of not supporting multiple wives within Aboriginal marriages. They wouldn’t review their policy for years to come.

In a series of letters, officials discussed providing government payments to Aboriginal grandparents raising grandchildren.

Member of Parliament, Frederick Collard, pointed out the issues Aboriginal people in Western Australia faced in accessing government services, calling for a ‘fairer deal’.