Litigation Lending Services director Warren Mundine is in Western Australia building a class action against the state for wages stolen from Aboriginal people over a decades-long period.
The class action process began in 2020, and more than 1,600 people signed up for the lawsuit within 48 hours of it begin announced.
Shine Lawyers are representing West Australian Aboriginal workers and the families of workers whose wages were stolen under the Native Administration Act 1936 and the Native Welfare Act 1963.
In June 2021 the it was announced that the action would move into mediation with the WA government.
Litigation Lending Services are funding the case and Mr Mundine was meeting with Indigenous groups in Western Australia last week.
"We are having discussions with different Aboriginal groups about the class action we are launching," he said.
"I just got off the Zoom with Tyronne Garstone from Kimberley land Council. We are arranging a big meeting... on December 7, with Traditional Owners in the Kimberley, going through the case with them."
Mr Mundine predicted the class action would ultimately involve a "huge" number of people.
"It was about 16,000 in Queensland and I would say it will be a little bit more in WA," he said.
"Unfortunately, in Queensland, because of the time period, 60 per cent had passed away.
"That 60 per cent was packaged up for the descendants, inheriting mum and dad or grandparents' salaries that were taken from them."
Mr Mundine said the class action research team was working with native title bodies and other groups in WA to identify workers, and their families, who had their wages stolen.
"My father was in the same boat in New South Wales. He was a grader driver working for the Department of Main Roads, and if the whitefella next to him was getting $100 he was getting $45."
Mr Mundine said the stolen wages had a significant intergenerational impact.
"For the children and the grandchildren, if they had got their pay at the right levels they could have brought a home, it could have changed the lives of the children and grandchildren for the better, and because they didn't get it people were left in poverty and we have seen the results of that," he said.
A WA government spokesperson said the matter was currently before the Federal Court and the government was working with all parties to progress proceedings.
"Preservation of evidence hearings were held in June and July this year, and the matter has been referred to mediation, which is ongoing," he said.
"The State's preference continues to be to resolve this matter through agreement, if possible, and is committed to working in partnership with Aboriginal people to acknowledge the intergenerational impacts of past injustices."
