SYDNEY—Compensating the stolen generations would not cost "billions of dollars", a Senate committee has been told.
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission director Darren Dick says the minimum $20,000 payments recommended under a proposed federal compensation model would make a practical difference to affected Aboriginal people.
"It's not an amount that is a windfall... in this bill you're talking $20,000," he told the Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs in Sydney today.
"That's the sort of amount where a family who has been reunited can go on a holiday together, it can make a practical difference in people's lives.
"You're not talking about billions of dollars here, you're talking 0.001 per cent of GDP."
The committee is holding hearings around the country to take submissions on the compensation model set out in the Stolen Generation Compensation Bill currently before federal parliament.
The bill seeks to implement a reparations process for victims of the stolen generation of Aborigines taken from their families by government authorities, based on recommendations from the decade-old Bringing Them Home Report.
Mr Dick told the committee the compensation model in the bill was much simpler than leaving Aboriginal people to take their claims to the courts.
"The simple reality for many people is that the evidence doesn't exist, the people have died, the records are not held by governments and so they are unable to pursue the litigations.
"We do advocate very strongly for a simplified model that enables people to have some sort of justice."
The committee has also heard evidence that the Rudd Government's apology in parliament had not exposed it to further liability to possible compensation claims by members of the stolen generation.
Andrea Durbach, Associate Professor with the University of NSW Australian Human Rights Centre, said it would not spark a rise in claims.
"I don't think the apology is going to trigger a floodgate of litigation at all," Prof Durbach said.
"The advice from very significant legal counsel in Australia ... was that no liability would attach to that apology and that it would certainly not be relied on by the courts other than just as an indication of a government approach at a particular time."
The Senate committee is due to report in June.