Anger in Adelaide over axing of ATSIC

Bob Briton

There was strong support for ATSIC shown on the streets of 
Adelaide last week. Around 800 people gathered at Victoria Square 
to protest the edict from the Howard Government that elected 
representation for indigenous Australians should be buried along 
with the Commission.

Local elder, Auntie Josie Agius, gave the Kaurna welcome to 
country and added her own plea for unity in the face of this 
latest blow to Aboriginal people. She said that developments were 
taking the country back to the bad old days when the Aborigines 
Welfare Board and the mission superintendent used to set the 
boundaries on the lives of Aboriginal people.

Tauto Sansbury, the Chairperson of the Patpa Warra Yunti Regional 
Council, expressed satisfaction at the size of the demonstration 
and the willingness to fight that it represents. The rally had 
been called as the result of a decision at a well-attended 
meeting of community leaders the previous Monday.

Tauto warned that the sinking of ATSIC will also be a blow to 
Aboriginal employment and the many programs initiated by the 
commission: the Family Violence Strategy, for example.

Elliot Johnson — former QC, Supreme Court Justice and Chairman 
of the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody — 
pointed out the hypocrisy of the Government over the ATSIC 
decision. Both major political parties publicly supported the 
concept of self-determination underpinning the recommendations of 
the Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody.

The decision to absorb former functions of ATSIC back into 
mainstream government departments is the opposite of self-
determination and exposes the real motives of the Howard 
Government.

The Reverend Ken Sumner of the United Aboriginal and Islander 
Christian Congress was also stirred by the solid support for the 
protest. He noted that his community had been "too relaxed." 
While the Aboriginal people had been asleep, things had been 
changed on them. The decision on ATSIC must be taken as a wake up 
call.

He said that it must also be a wake up call to the churches. 
"When there's injustice, the church needs to stand up and say 
'enough!'" 

Democrats MLC Kate Reynolds pointed to her party's proud history 
of support for the struggle of indigenous Australians for their 
rights. She passed on greetings from Senator Aden Ridgeway, the 
only Indigenous person in the Federal Parliament and only the 
second ever!

She said that the Howard Government is seeking to pin its record 
of "serial underachievement" on the Commission in the same way 
that the Rann Government in SA does with the Land Councils.

This is being done even though ATSIC controls only 15 per cent of 
Commonwealth Indigenous money. Nevertheless, it is now getting 
100 per cent of the blame for the conditions in Aboriginal 
communities.

Kate also warned of the effect of wiping out ATSIC which is the 
foundation of over 900 organisations serving the Aboriginal 
people and which currently employs over 35,000 people in its 
programs.

SA Zone Commissioner Klynton Wanganeen voiced his concern that 
Aboriginal languages could be among the first casualties of the 
decision. Like his children, he learned his people's tongue as a 
second language and worries that even this link with traditional 
culture could be threatened by the decision of the Howard 
Government.

The protest then rehearsed its chants before heading off through 
the streets of Adelaide before arriving at the office of Amanda 
Vanstone, the Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and 
Indigenous Affairs. A petition calling for the Senate to reject 
the bill to abolish ATSIC was handed over to the Minister's 
staff.