- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (
1990 –2005 ) was theAustralia n Government body through whichAboriginal Australian s andTorres 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.Establishment
ATSIC was established by
Bob Hawke 's Labor government through theAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 (the ATSIC Act), which took effect on5 March 1990 .While ATSIC's existence was always subject to the oversight of governments, who represent all Australians, ATSIC was an elected body whose constituency was
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 manyMelanesian communities inhabiting the islands of theTorres Strait , collectively known asTorres Strait Islander s. Later theTorres Strait Regional Authority took over responsibility for programs in theTorres Strait Islands . This body continues to operate.The chairpersons of ATSIC were:
*Lowitja O'Donoghue 1990-96
*Gatjil Djerrkura 1996-2000
*Geoff Clark 2000-2004Controversy
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, and because of allegations of mismanagement. 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 (
Lance Quartermaine was acting Chairperson). After a court appeal Clark was briefly reinstated.Abolition
For some time after Geoff Clark's appointment, the Howard (Liberal-National) 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.On
28 May 2004 - the start ofNational Reconciliation Week , one day afterNational Sorry Day , and one day after the sudden death of former ATSIC chairpersonGatjil Djerrkura - the Howard government introduced into the Federal Parliament legislation to abolish ATSIC. After a long 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 from 27 January 2006 (previously with the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs).ee also
References
External links
* [http://pandora.nla.gov.au/pan/41033/20060106/ATSIC/default.html ATSIC web site] - Archive from [http://pandora.nla.gov.au/ Pandora] , the Australian National Web Archiving Project.
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