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Beyond axing ATSIC, there is no plan

By Mark Metherell,
Political Correspondent

28 May 2004 - The Federal Government has introduced its legislation to scrap Australia's main indigenous organisation with no immediate plans to appoint a replacement.

This is amid boycott calls from Aboriginal leaders and Opposition claims that the changeover is a shambles.

The Government moved, on the 37th anniversary of the referendum to constitutionally recognise Aboriginal people, to end the most ambitious attempt yet to give indigenous Australians self-determination, through the elected Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission.

Under the legislation, the commission will disappear on June 30, barring delays in the Senate, or High Court action proposed by some commission members.

The 35 existing ATSIC regional councils will be maintained for another year while an alternative structure is developed.

The Indigenous Affairs Minister, Amanda Vanstone, said she hoped to establish a Government-appointed national indigenous advisory council by the end of the year.

Aboriginal leader Alison Anderson yesterday warned that anyone who joined the new body would be "absolutely crucified by the black nation".

Ms Anderson, a Northern Territory representative on ATSIC, said it had not been given a fair go.

Senator Vanstone said axing ATSIC was aimed at focusing effort on "better outcomes for the first Australians". ATSIC had failed as a national representative organisation, "most significantly because it was set an impossible task", she said.

Labor's indigenous affairs spokesman, Kerry O'Brien, said Senator Vanstone was unable to say yesterday how any of the ATSIC indigenous programs would be managed.

Senator O'Brien said he sought answers during a Senate estimates committee hearing about shifting ATSIC work to other departments but was "stonewalled by a clueless minister unable to confirm the intended destination of a single indigenous program".

Labor, however, is still to say whether it will agree to an appeal from four ATSIC commissioners yesterday for it to join minority parties in demanding a Senate inquiry into scrapping ATSIC.

Ms Anderson and South Australian commissioner Klynton Wanganeen said the Government was stripping indigenous Australians of their voice while introducing a "dog's breakfast" of legislation that was likely to breach racial discrimination laws and international covenants protecting indigenous rights.

The former deputy chairman of ATSIC, Ray Robinson, who called for a national rally in Canberra against the move, denied the controversies over his own financial dealings helped bring ATSIC down.

"The Government has spent over $2 million investigating me and they have found nothing," said Mr Robinson, who acknowledged there were "matters outstanding" concerning inquiries.

"Do you wind up a national statutory body because of that?"

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

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