Antinuclear

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) – what it meant for Aboriginal Australia

History of government and Aboriginal Affairs prior to 1967 and after The Stringer, by Delephene Fraser  September 17th, 2013…..…….History of   Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)

ATSIC became part of the Australian legislation in 1989 and the government appointed Lois (Lowitija) O Donoghue as ATSIC first Chairperson, ATSIC flung open it doors in March 1990. section 3 of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 sets out ATSIC objectives as follows:

• To ensure maximum participation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in government policy
• To promote Indigenous self-management and self-sufficiency
• To further Indigenous economic, social and cultural development, and
• To ensure co-ordination of Commonwealth, state and territory and local government policy affecting Indigenous people.

In order to achieve these objectives, ASTIC was to:

·         Advise governments at all levels on Indigenous issues

·         Advocate the recognition of Indigenous rights on behalf of Indigenous peoples regionally and nationally and internationally

·         Deliver and monitor some of the Commonwealth government Indigenous programs and services.

People have many opinions about ATSIC however my opinion and view is I watched many of my countrymen work for the department and their joy in doing so. I saw my brother come home with such pride and happiness of funding 40 million dollars to remote radio programs over the whole of Australia. He pushed the payment button and my mother cried in delight in hearing what her son did. I saw my friends organise massive NAIDOC events that brought people to Canberra from all over the nation to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. I saw the letters Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander sit at the front of a department rather then tagged at the end.

I also saw Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander employment maintain a rate of 2.8% for all of the Australian Public Service. With of course the vast majority being employed by ATSIC.

Lastly it is important to note that the move to abolish ATSIC went against the ATSIC review and the ATSIC review board. However a condemnation and kneecapping from Labor (Latham) and the eventual beheading from the Howard government, ATSIC was executed.

Mainstreaming of Aboriginal programs:

Abolishing of ATSIC created numerous social democratic issues for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Abolishing ATSIC meant that there was no advocacy from an Aboriginal and Torres Strait point of view. There were no Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people sitting in Managers, Directors, and SES positions. It also meant the end to Self Determination, policy driven from grass roots, from the people themselves.

With both the government and the Labor Opposition having announced their intentions to abolish ATSIC, what had been a bold experiment in the administration of Indigenous affairs at the time of its establishment now seems almost certain to be consigned to the dustbin of history, along with the earlier experiments in government-sponsored Indigenous elected representative structures.

Former Liberal Minister for the Environment, Aborigines and the Arts (1971–2), Peter Howson, claims that elected Indigenous representation is no longer justified, and that ‘politically’ Australia’s Indigenous population ‘should be treated the same as other Australians’. In response to Indigenous claims that this would be ‘to head back towards the pattern of assimilation’, wherein the policy goal would be to assimilate Indigenous Australians into the mainstream society.

………The removal of accountable and elected representation has meant that there is no national voice to advocate on Indigenous policy………http://thestringer.com.au/history-of-government-and-aboriginal-affairs-prior-to-1967-and-after-2/#.UjnvR9JwonE

September 17, 2013 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | aboriginal issues, AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, history