Western Australia Spends $180 Million to Settle Indigenous Workers’ Historic ‘Stolen Wages’

‘It is an important development in recognising the past injustices inflicted on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,’ said WA premier.

A group of Indigenous people sit at the front of one of the houses in a community in Pia Wadjarri, Australia, on Oct. 4, 2023. Tamati Smith/Getty Images

Western Australia (WA) will spend $180 million (US$116 million) to pay back the stolen wages of Indigenous people working for the state government between 1936 and 1972.

The WA government recently announced that it had reached a settlement agreement with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forced to work with little or no wages under decades-old policies.