May Day Marches Across Australia Demand Fair Wages As First Nations Workers Politely Mention That Most Of Their Wages Are Still Sitting In A Trust Account Somewhere

MELBOURNE – May Day demonstrations were held across Australia on Friday alongside global rallies for higher wages and better working conditions. Workers in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth turned out under union banners, demanding fair pay and pushing back against rising costs of living.

The atmosphere of solidarity was warmly welcomed by First Nations workers, who have been campaigning on exactly these issues since approximately 1788, with periodic high points including the 1946 Pilbara Strike, the 1966 Wave Hill Walk-Off and the entire concept of being paid for one’s labour – a benefit Aboriginal workers were largely denied for the better part of two centuries.

Speaking from a community where the stolen wages issue remains formally unresolved across multiple states, an Aunty raised a polite note from the side of the rally.

“Lovely to see all the placards mob” she said. “Big crowd. Real deadly. Just popping in to mention that the Queensland Aboriginal stolen wages settlement was capped at $190 million for decades of unpaid labour, the WA settlement averaged less than $4,000 per worker, and most of the people whose wages were stolen never lived to see a cent. But yeah – solidarity.”

Stolen wages were the systematic withholding of First Nations workers’ pay across the 20th century, held in “trust” by state governments and protectors. Most was never returned. The system was finally exposed in the 1990s. The compensation that has eventually flowed has been described by historians as “a fraction” and by claimants as “the worst rebate in Australian history”.

Today’s workers face genuine pressures including stagnant wage growth, an inflated rental market and the federal budget on May 12 that may or may not address negative gearing. Indigenous workers face all of those issues plus a 200-year head start on the wage theft.

A spokesperson for the ACTU welcomed Indigenous participation in May Day rallies. A spokesperson for First Nations workers confirmed they had been participating in them, organising them and being beaten by police at them, since well before the ACTU existed.