Speaking in the Senate, Indigenous Australians minister Malarndirri McCarthy acknowledged the injustice of these laws for people who worked for little or no wages in the Northern Territory between 1933 and 1971.
"Indigenous people were used for back-breaking labour, building new communities that often excluded them," she said.
"We know they did gruelling and critical work, particularly in the Northern Territory. Toiling on farms and stations, building, tending to stock, cooking and cleaning, gardening, making clothes.
"We also know that under Commonwealth laws in place for decades, until a little over 50 years ago, First Nations people in the Northern Territory did this work for very little pay. Even, in some cases, for no pay at all."
In September the government reached a settlement for up to $180 million dollars for thousands of Indigenous people who worked in the Northern Territory between 1933 and 1972 for little or no wages
Lead applicant in the Territory stolen wages class action, Minnie McDonald, said the case was about all the people who weren't paid for their work.
"A lot of those people we worked with are gone now," she said.
"This is about all the people who were working everywhere and never got paid nothing."
Senator McCarthy thanked Ms McDonald for her courage and strength in leading the class action.
"I am sorry for the suffering and injustice inflicted on First Nations people, my people, through the laws of the Commonwealth that denied them the right to fair pay for work done," she said.
"I hope the Commonwealth's recent settlement of the Northern Territory Historical Wages class action, bravely led by Ms Minnie McDonald, can help to bring closure to this shameful chapter in Australia's history."
Shine Lawyers lodged the class action on behalf of Ms McDonald and the other members.
Joint head of class actions Vicky Antzoulatos said the government's apology was deeply meaningful for the group members.
"This is a decades long wound that many families have carried from generation to generation," she said.
"The government has rightly acknowledged this injustice, and we know, from speaking to our clients, what this recognition means to them."
In a similar class action, launched by artist and former stockman Mervyn Street, the federal court ruled thousands of claimants who were paid little or no wages for their work between 1936 and 1972, could receive compensation from the West Australian government.
Under the settlement, approved by the court on Wednesday, the WA government promised to pay up to $180.4 million, minus costs.
27°C