When heirs and relatives of Northern Territory Stolen generations won a 50-million-dollar class action settlement from the Federal Government two years ago, they felt their parents’ trauma had finally been recognised. But some of the descendants of Indigenous people removed from their families under Australia’s assimilation policies are now angry they’ll get little or nothing from the payout. It’s prompted calls for more regulation of class actions.
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00:00Northern Territory's stolen generation's children spent years being abused in institutions like the Tiwi Islands Garden Point Catholic Mission.
00:12Just because you don't like religion, they tried to beat it into him.
00:16Brian Long's dad passed down the damage he suffered to his kids.
00:21My dad used to, when we played up or anything, he used to beat us up,
00:26but I don't hold that against him because that's the way that they grew him up.
00:32Stolen generation's descendants jumped at the chance to join a Shine Lawyers class action for compensation
00:39because the federal government's territory redress scheme excluded their parents who'd already died.
00:46But two years after the government settled the action for $50 million,
00:51some claimants have now been told they'll get just $3,000 each.
00:56They've created a mess and we're getting traumatised again just for a lousy couple of thousand dollars.
01:07Some will get nothing.
01:09All this stuff we've been going through and waiting and all that has all been for nothing.
01:15The Shine Lawyers says the scheme it set up for dividing the $50 million mirrors Northern Territory Inheritance Law.
01:22It prioritises a stolen generation person's will executor first, then their spouse, then their children,
01:29meaning some children will miss out.
01:31It says the scheme was approved by the court.
01:34Shine's decision is causing friction between families and that's not any good to our mental health.
01:40The claimants are also angry with the federal government for putting them in this position.
01:45The government responded with a statement that it's not involved in the settlement distribution,
01:51but will closely monitor the matter.
01:53It's a shame that it had to go this way.
01:57$11 million of the settlement went to legal fees and insurance.
02:02Costs Shine Lawyers says were clear up front.
02:06There is a growing concern at the growing dissatisfaction and indeed anger from claimants
02:13who get vacuumed into class actions and then don't get much money.
02:19I think there has to be some form of regulation that ensures that this kind of thing can't occur.
02:25Unhappy claimants also think more federal government regulation of class actions is needed.