Brian Ross wrote on Mar 26
th, 2023 at 8:13pm:
Frank wrote on Mar 26
th, 2023 at 6:21pm:
Brian Ross wrote on Mar 26
th, 2023 at 4:08pm:
Oh, dearie, dearie, me, then we have ATSIC and its sorry history...
... of nepotism, corruption, tribal rivalry, sexual assault, embezzlement and so on and so forth.
One man's offences are not those of an entire organisation, Soren. Oh, dearie, dearie, me, tsk, tsk, tsk...
You ARE a mindless moron, cockwomble, that's your role in life. Keep it up, we NEED to see what moron looks like - an eternal reminder.
Successors
Ministerial Taskforce on Indigenous Affairs
On 28 May 2004 the Ministerial Taskforce on Indigenous Affairs (MTF) was established for the purpose of "driving the delivery of improved services and outcomes for Indigenous Australians".[12] It was chaired by Mal Brough, Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Indigenous Affairs.[13]
Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination
Main article: Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination
The Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination was created within the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs on 1 July 2004 "to coordinate and drive the Government's new arrangements in Indigenous affairs",[14] and took on ATSIC's responsibilities upon its abolition. Following machinery of government changes, that office was transferred to the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs on 27 January 2006.[15]
National Indigenous Council
Main article: National Indigenous Council
On 6 November 2004 a government-appointed advisory body, the National Indigenous Council, was announced by the former Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Vanstone, who said that the National Indigenous Council would "provide expert advice to the Australian Government on policy, program and service-delivery issues affecting Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders". It would act as an advisory body only, to support the work of the Ministerial Taskforce on Indigenous Affairs.[16]
At the time the government announced its dismantling, Bob Collins, who had served in the Hawke ministry when ATSIC was established, said that the organisation had let down Indigenous people by deciding that "looking after Geoff Clark was more important than looking after ATSIC".[8]
Following an Inquiry, the 2005 report by its Select Committee said that while there had been widespread support for instituting changes to the way that ATSIC was structured as well as how it operates, there was also "overwhelming" support for the continued existence of a national Indigenous representative body. Most witnesses had suggested that regional operations could be improved, but they were strongly in favour of having a national, elected Indigenous representative body. Deep concerns were expressed about the disempowerment of Indigenous peoples. One of the recommendations was that the government "give active support and funding to the formation of a national Indigenous elected representative body, and provide it with ongoing funding".[17]
The dismantling of ATSIC was seen by many commentators as harmful to Aboriginal people in Australia.[18]
In 2009, Lowitja O'Donoghue expressed her opinion that reform of the agency would have been better than establishing a new agency which has been costly and might suffer similar problems as its predecessor, such as nepotism.[19]ATSIC was criticised by a government advisory panel in 2009 for having been dominated by males.[20]