SYDNEY - THE Australian government will investigate a report that some Aboriginal children taken from their parents under an assimilation policy were used as 'guinea pigs' for leprosy treatments, said Health Minister Nicola Roxon.

A member of the 'Stolen Generation' alliance, which represents Aborigines taken from families to be raised with white Australians, has told a Senate inquiry that some children were injected with a leprosy serum in the 1920s and 1930s.

Aborigine Kathleen Mills said her uncle was a medical orderly at the Kahlin Compound in the city of Darwin and had told her that children were used as 'guinea pigs' for leprosy treatments.

Health minister Roxon said on Wednesday that the government would search health department archives to see whether there was any evidence that children were use in medical experiments.

'These are obviously very serious allegations,' Ms Roxon said.

'I have requested my department to examine their archives to determine if there are any documents that can shed any light on this situation,' she said.

An Australian human rights report in 1997 found that between one in three and one in 10 Aboriginal children had been taken from their families between 1910 and 1970 under past assimilation policies. Many faced physical and sexual abuse in institutions, church missions and foster homes, said the report.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a national apology in February to the Stolen Generation, heralding a new era in race relations in the country.

Australia has about 460,000 indigenous Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, who make up about 2 per cent of the 21 million population.

Aborigines are the most disadvantaged group in Australia, with a life expectancy 17 years less than other Australians, and far higher rates of infant mortality, unemployment, imprisonment, alcohol and drug abuse and domestic violence. - REUTERS