The new award

For all this, Pastoralists were quite aware of the likely disruption the award would cause. Instead of a part wage plus keep for a bunch of people, Aboriginals would now get one wage, and have to spread it around.
This is probably the opposite of what many Aboriginals were hoping for - they were hoping bosses would acknowledge a reciprocal obligation; Aboriginals would do their share of the work, and the bosses would make sure all the dependants have decent clothing and accommodation, and that kids would have a chance to start school and so on.

What the case summary shows is that Pastoralists, Unions and the Arbitration Commission alike had all made an effort to understand the reasons for Aboriginal economic and social practices, to understand the various stages Aboriginals were at in adapting to the whitefella world, and the probable impact of equal pay. (The decision certainly makes interesting reading for anyone who wants more detail of Aboriginal progress in the 1960s than I am offering here.)

Despite the arguments of the Pastoralists, the world was changing and by now there was no way Equal Pay could be denied. Different basic wages for different races were not an option. In handing down his decision, Chief Justice Kirby made it clear that awarding Aboriginals equal pay would create welfare problems and other government departments would have to step in and deal with them.

“The introduction of award coverage for aborigines will therefore come into operation on 1^st December 1968... The intervening period will enable the parties [to consider] questions such as accommodation and rations which may require change when aborigines are covered by the award.”

Kirby’s intention was to allow time for Pastoralists to make adjustments to their labour force, allow time for responsible government departments to plan housing, infrastructure, and rationing arrangements for those Aboriginals who might no longer have a place on stations in the future, and allow time for Aboriginals to decide how they would adapt to the changes.

A Queensland Trades & Labor Council Pamphlet

Before this decision was made there were around 600 Aboriginals employed in the Northern Territory pastoral industry, but a total 4,000 Aboriginals dependent on these jobs.

The consequences of this decision were felt in two main ways:

• it led to the displacement of thousands of Aboriginal people
• it precipitated more strike action, culminating in the famous Wave Hill walk off, setting in chain a whole swag of land rights problems.