http://www.theage.com.au/national/for-some-workers-the-struggle-will-never-end-20100615-yd9p.html ANDRA JACKSON June 16, 2010

GURINDJI member Peter Inverway grew up hearing his stockman father's tales of once having been paid in rations, never dreaming he might one day know the same indignity. That was until the federal government intervened in Northern Territory indigenous communities three years ago. Mr Inverway, a construction and building worker, helped build the railway between Alice Springs and Darwin in 2002.

Since the intervention, his earnings have gone from a peak of $1200 a week to about $4.80 an hour for him and other Gurindji. He works a 30-hour week, building an arts and crafts centre for Kalkaringi. Every fortnight, Centrelink pays $250 into his bank, his ''choice'' money and $150 is paid into a Basics Card [rations] with kindergarten-style drawings of what it can be spent on - clothes, food, health items and hygiene products. ''We've gone back to when my people were working for rations of tea, flour and a bit of tobacco,'' he said in Melbourne where he was meeting trade union leaders.