'Eventually They Get It All' ... Government Management of Aboriginal Trust Money in New South Wales

For much of the 20th Century the NSW Government took money belonging to Aboriginal people and placed it in trust accounts for which it was legally responsible. It then resisted people who sought to have their own money returned to them, knowing that official records were poor and that significant amounts had gone astray within the bureaucracy. It is only recently that State and Federal politicians have begun to pay attention to the issue.This research report, for the Indigenous Law Centre at the University of New South Wales, focuses on the laws and policies that made it possible for governments to control Aboriginal people's money in NSW. It pays particular attention to NSW laws applying to child apprentices in indentured labour and to the combined operation of State and Federal laws in the area of social security entitlements