Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
Agency overview

Formed	5 March 1990^[1]
Preceding Agency	Department of Aboriginal Affairs Aboriginal Development Commission
Dissolved	30 June 2005^[1]
Superseding agency	Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination
Jurisdiction	Commonwealth of Australia
Headquarters	Canberra
Agency executives	Lowitja O'Donoghue, Chairperson (1990‑1996) Gatjil Djerrkura, Chairperson (1996‑2000) Geoff Clark, Chairperson (2000‑2004)
Website	atsic.gov.au

'Alcheringa Spirit’ an Australian limestone sculpture displayed in the foyer of the ATSIC Commission in Sydney was created by Australian Aboriginal artist Mundara Koorang

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (1990–2005) was the Australian Government body through which Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were formally involved in the processes of government affecting their lives. A number of indigenous programs and organisations fell under the overall umbrella of ATSIC.

The agency was dismantled in 2004 in the aftermath of corruption allegations and litigation.^[2]

Establishment

ATSIC was established by Bob Hawke's Labor government through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 (the ATSIC Act), which took effect on 5 March 1990.

While ATSIC's existence was always subject to the oversight of governments, who represent all Australians, ATSIC was a group of elected individuals whose main goal was the oversights that happened to Indigenous Australians. This included people from the many Aboriginal communities on the Australian mainland, Tasmania and other off-shore islands, and the ethnically distinct people from the many Melanesian communities inhabiting the islands of the Torres Strait, collectively known as Torres Strait Islanders. Later the Torres Strait Regional Authority took over responsibility for programs in the Torres Strait Islands.

The chairs of ATSIC were Lowitja O'Donoghue (1990-1996), Gatjil Djerrkura (1996-2000), Geoff Clark (2000-2004) and Lionel Quartermaine (2003-2004). ATSIC'S Deputy chairs included Ray Robinson. Mick Gooda was its final Chief Executive Officer.^[3]

Corruption investigations

A review of ATSIC was commissioned in 2003.^[4] The report was titled In the Hands of the Regions: A New ATSIC and it recommended reforms which gave greater control of ATSIC to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at a regional level. At the time, Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone stated that the review had concluded that ATSIC has not connected well with the indigenous Australians and was not serving them well.^[4]

In 2003, ATSIC became embroiled in controversy over litigation surrounding its chairperson Geoff Clark, relating to his alleged participation in a number of gang rapes in the 1970s and 1980s. ATSIC was also investigated for financial corruption, and the embezzlement of ATSIC's funds, that were originally intended for service delivery to help Aboriginal peoples.

Soon after this the Howard government began to remove some of ATSIC's fiscal powers, which were transferred to a new independent organisation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services (ATSIS).

The government ultimately suspended Geoff Clark as Chairperson of ATSIC in 2003 (Lionel Quartermaine was acting Chairperson). After a court appeal Clark was briefly reinstated. In the same year, Clark was arrested for brawling in a Victorian bar.

Abolition

For some time after Geoff Clark's appointment, the Howard Government had been expressing doubts as to the value of continuing to have ATSIC at all. Following Mark Latham's election to the leadership of the (Labor) Opposition in December 2003, Labor also accepted that ATSIC had not worked. In March of election year 2004, both parties pledged to introduce alternative arrangements for indigenous affairs.

The government's plan was to abolish ATSIC and all its regional and state structures, and return funding for indigenous programs to the relevant line departments. Labor's view was that ATSIC itself should be abolished, but many of the regional and state sub-organisations should be retained, to continue to give indigenous people a voice in their own affairs and within their own communities. It rejected the notion of merging indigenous funding into funding for Australians generally as 'tried and failed', but had not announced its alternative proposals.

John Howard announced the agency's abolishment on 15 April 2004 saying that "the experiment in elected representation for indigenous people has been a failure".^[4] On 28 May 2004 the Howard government introduced into the Federal Parliament legislation to abolish ATSIC. After a delay the Bill finally passed both houses of Parliament in 2005. ATSIC was formally abolished at midnight 24 March 2005.

The policy and coordination role is now the responsibility of the Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination in the Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs as of 27 January 2006 (previously with the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs).

The dismantling of ATSIC was seen by many commentators as harmful to Aboriginal people in Australia.^[5] 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.^[2]

ATSIC was criticised by a government advisory panel in 2009 for having been dominated by males.^[6]

References

1 2 CA 7080: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission, Central Office, National Archives of Australia, retrieved 15 December 2013
1 2 Pia Akerman (22 October 2009). "We should have kept ATSIC: Lowitja O'Donoghue". The Australian. News Limited. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
↑ Misha Schubert (15 December 2009). "Mick Gooda wins top indigenous affairs post". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 14 September 2014.
1 2 3 "Clark vows to fight as ATSIC scrapped". The Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. 15 April 2004. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
↑ United Nations. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (2004). Urban-rural linkages: an annotated bibliography, 1994-2004. UN-HABITAT. p. 75. ISBN 92-1-131713-4. Retrieved 18 January 2012.
↑ Misha Schubert (26 August 2009). "ATSIC wary of repeating past mistakes". The Age. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 18 January 2012.

External links

ATSIC web site - Archive from Pandora, the Australian National Web Archiving Project.

Indigenous Australians
Peoples	Aboriginal Australians Australoids Blackfellas Communities Groups Half-castes Tasmanians Torres Strait Islanders Victorians Western Australians
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Languages	Avoidance speech Australian Aboriginal English Macro-Gunwinyguan languages Australian Creole Language groups Loanwords into English Palawa Pama–Nyungan languages Placenames Sign languages Torres Strait Island languages
Organisations	ATSIC Aboriginal Medical Service Aborigines Advancement League Aborigines Progressive Association AIATSIS Australian Aboriginal Progress Association Australian Aborigines' League Central Land Council Media National Congress of Australia's First Peoples National Indigenous Council Northern Land Council Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations Politics TSRA Reconciliation Australia Sorry Day
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Issues	Crime Health Land rights Native title Protected Area Media portrayal Northern Territory National Emergency Response Self-determination Stolen Generations Half-Caste Act Voting rights 1967 Referendum

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