ATSIC bill referral points to policy void

Statement by
Acting ATSIC Chairman Lionel Quartermaine

The ALP's decision to refer the Government's bill to abolish 
ATSIC to a Senate Committee for review is a welcome first step 
towards giving suitable consideration to the future governance of 
Indigenous affairs in this country.

All actions by governments that have an impact on Aboriginal and 
Torres Strait Islander people must be reviewable.

Improved accountability for Indigenous programs must operate in 
both directions — upwards through legislators as well as 
downwards to our communities.

In addition, the time has long passed since it was acceptable for 
governments to make arbitrary decisions about the lives of 
Aboriginal people.

Policy decisions must be based on evidence of best practice and 
demonstrated results, not whims and political expedience.

Minister Vanstone has not yet explained how the Government's 
changes will provide improvements to Indigenous communities. This 
is not surprising, as its ideas are not based in a policy 
framework that stands up to scrutiny.

Instead, the Minister is banging the drum about increases in 
spending since the Keating years.

The fact is that increased expenditure in education and other 
areas is linked tightly to increased population.

It has nothing to do with government generosity.

Indigenous communities are growing and producing much higher 
numbers of children and young adults in need of education 
services than their non-Indigenous counterparts.

It is time the Government got over its obsession with Keating and 
stood accountable for its own efforts.

Access to education, health and housing services is a legal 
entitlement that every Australian should enjoy.

Governments should be embarrassed by their lack of ability to 
overcome the continuing shortfall in services, rather than 
boasting that the gap has become slightly smaller over a decade.

Apart from the Senate referral, the Opposition is currently in 
the same boat as the Government in holding a position on 
Indigenous policy that neither has a solid foundation nor 
inspires confidence that they know what they are doing.

Both sides of politics have chosen to ignore the recommendations 
of the most extensive review of Indigenous administration 
conducted in the past decade that clearly recommended maintaining 
a revised ATSIC, although with a stronger regional focus.

Neither has substituted a set of substantial future objectives 
and the means of achieving them.

Both support the abolition of ATSIC for the sake of political 
expedience in a game of wedge and counter-wedge politics that 
casts another shadow over race relations in this country.

Neither has put forward a vision for the future that Indigenous 
people can embrace.

We must hope that the Senate makes the most of its opportunity to 
restore some sanity and integrity to the administration of 
Indigenous affairs.