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Committee told not to abolish ATSIC

31 January 2005 - The abolition of peak indigenous body ATSIC would leave Aborigines as the only native people in the democratic world without a voice, a Senate committee was told.

The Senate Select Committee on the Administration of Indigenous Affairs has reconvened in Brisbane, holding public hearings for the first time since the federal election last October.

The committee is investigating how to best provide for Australia's indigenous people following the Howard government's decision to scrap the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services (ATSIS) and mainstream all indigenous services, via the proposed ATSIC Amendment Bill.

ATSIC south-east Queensland zone commissioner Robbie Williams, who represents about 42,000 indigenous people in the region, said while ATSIC had its faults, it did provide people with a political voice.

"I am really, really, concerned," Mr Williams said.

"We will be the only indigenous group in the world who have no political voice once ATSIC is gone. That is a shame.

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Advertisement"I have no problem with ATSIC being abolished if there is a better tomorrow, but at the moment I don't see there being a better tomorrow, I honestly don't."

Warning against the duplication of federal and state services, Mr Williams said some kind of regional community representation was essential to deliver services and prevent "even bigger headaches" in the future.

He urged the Federal Government to consider the plight of urban Aborigines, saying people in the outback received far greater funding and consideration than those living in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane.

Sacred Treaties Group leader Sam Watson described the Bill as a "massive step backwards" for Aboriginal democracy and accused the government of hypocrisy.

"Why is the Australian government so committed to the democratic process in Iraq ... yet here at home, Aboriginal people are denied the capacity to elect our own representatives?" he asked.

Mr Watson said the abolition of ATSIC would thrust indigenous Australians into an "enormous vacuum" pre-dating the 1960s and 1970s when activists campaigned for equal rights.

"Our entire struggle since the 1960s has been to secure us a means of having a real say and ... of shaping and determining our immediate environment," Mr Watson said.

"We have been fighting against the history of a massive white government making decisions for us."

The committee, which held similar meetings in Western Australia, the Northern Territory and far north Queensland before the election, will travel to Moree in northern NSW on Tuesday before heading to Sydney and Canberra later in the week.

It is due to make its final report by March 8.

Source: The Age

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