Andrew Bolt: Facts have been stolen by populist politicians

Victoria went from no identified “stolen generations” members 20 years ago to 1200 today — each in line for $100,000. So where have they come from?

Here’s one way to create a “stolen generation”. Promise a huge handout – no questions asked – to anyone saying they were stolen.

Last week Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews announced he’d give $100,000 to every “stolen generations” victim in his state – children allegedly stolen from their families just because they were Aboriginal, not because they were in danger.

We’re told 1200 Victorians could get this Tatts-sized payout.

But I’m amazed, because 20 years ago an earlier Victorian Labor government set up a Stolen Generations Taskforce, under Aboriginal activist Jim Berg, to find these stolen children – and it failed.

Premier Daniel Andrews at a smoking ceremony before announcing the compensation payments. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

That taskforce advertised for so-called survivors but the 16 people it finally spoke to didn’t fit the bill.

One, for instance, said his mum just gave him away. Others complained they’d been sent away to school.

This taskforce’s report did not identify one truly stolen child, and even admitted “in Victoria … there was no formal policy for removing children”.

Yet it reported 36 “stolen generations” organisations were supposedly helping the children it could not find.

So how did Victoria go from no identified “stolen generations” members 20 years ago to 1200 today, each in line for $100,000?

Incredibly, this is not unusual.

Two decades ago, about 700 Aborigines signed up with activist lawyers offering to get compensation for being “stolen” in the Northern Territory.

Peter Gunner and Lorna Cubillo were not found to be “stolen generation” members.

The lawyers picked presumably the strongest two examples, Peter Gunner and Lorna Cubillo, for a Federal Court test case, but it turned out Gunner was not stolen but sent by his mother to Alice Springs for schooling.

Cubillo was rescued from a ration camp with her father gone, her mother and grandmother dead, and the aunt she called “mother” working at a station a 65km walk away.

The judge ruled that in the NT, at least, the “evidence does not support a finding that there was any policy of removal of part-Aboriginal children such as that alleged by the applicants”.

Yet last year, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he’d now give $82,000 to every “stolen generations” victim in the NT and ACT, and one law firm alone said it had 800 people wanting compensation.

How strange. I’ve checked “stolen generations” claims for nearly 20 years, and can’t find even 10 cases of children stolen just for being Aboriginal. Nor have courts found them.

But populist politicians now claim they have. Where did these “stolen” children come from? And what proof must they give before politicians hand over your money?