BY LEIGH HUGHES
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) will lose control of its funding powers under a new government plan.
Following its implementation on July 1, all funding decisions concerning programs delivered by ATSIC will be made, not by the elected ATSIC board, but by a new executive government agency operating under the Public Service Act.
Federal Indigenous-affairs minister Philip Ruddock says the changes will not affect the ability of ATSIC to make policy or decide financial priorities.
"I have separated funding from policy decisions and that's been done very deliberately ... it's called separation of powers", Ruddock said.
Ruddock made an initial proposal to the ATSIC board on March 26 for it to "take these decisions [to hand over funding control]" or otherwise face funding cuts in the May budget or government intervention. However, after an April 2 meeting of the ATSIC board the minister said, "I think the time has passed in terms of ATSIC's willingness to do this".
Ruddock says that the stripping of funding powers is necessary: "Even if there hasn't been [an] actual conflict of interest, and I'm not saying there has or hasn't been, there is a clear perception, not only in the public mind and the minds of many Indigenous people, that the basis on which funding decisions are taken is the relationship you have with individual commissioners or regional councillors".
The move comes amid claims of travel rorting, alleged bad loans and forgery by ATSIC leaders and board members.
Labor Party spokesperson Julia Gillard says the ALP supports the changes. "There needs to be a change and reform of ATSIC" but she adds that the government should have waited until after a review into the body was completed later this year.
Others, however, see the challenge to the board's powers as an attack on Indigenous self-determination. ATSIC deputy chairperson Ray Robinson called on the board to "categorically reject any move by Minister Ruddock or those working for him to take any further action to strip away the powers of the duly elected ATSIC board" in an April 1 joint statement with ATSIC chairperson Geoff Clark.
"Aboriginal people of Australia have been sold out here and it's a very sad day for the Aboriginal people of this country because now we are back in the dark days of 25 years ago", Robinson said. "[That was] when the secretary of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs can tell an Aboriginal community what you can get, when you can get it, and how you can get it."
Australian Democrats' Aboriginal affairs spokesperson Aden Ridgeway described the plan as a government "power play".
Within ATSIC, opinions are varied. In the April 1 statement, Clark called on the board to defend the current funding arrangements as "the best we have", while Cairns Regional Council of ATSIC chairperson Terry O'Shane supported the changes as "the only way to go".
At an April 11 meeting of ATSIC's strategic directions committee, a 14-page document from O'Shane outlining guidelines for a separation of powers was endorsed. Speaking to the Inquirer following the meeting, Clark said: "We are an elected body that needs a life of its own, but I'm not threatened by people wanting to look at ATSIC. I'm not trying to shift the blame. I think we need cultural change".
A few days after the endorsement, however, Ruddock decided to go ahead and implement the funding plan without ATSIC in a move that has "disappointed" ATSIC leaders.
In a joint statement with four regional commissioners from around Australia, O'Shane states: "To many Indigenous people and the wider community, the message will be that the government has forced us to do what we should have done ourselves — and which we support in principle anyway."
However, according to the statement there is also more at stake: "The future of Indigenous governance and the principle of Indigenous management of our own affairs hang in the balance today.
"Silence from those of us who want to govern our affairs effectively, responsibly and accountably can only further discredit ATSIC and the broader principles for which it stands.
"It is essential that ATSIC board members do what they were elected to do: provide leadership in the interests of those we serve — Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders."
The pre-emptive removal of the ATSIC board's funding powers by the Coalition government has undermined both ATSIC's ability to have a "life of its own" and cuts across the right of the elected board to make these decisions.
Using the ample publicity the Murdoch-owned media has given Clark's convictions over a pub brawl last year and police investigations over alleged financial impropriety by Robinson, Ruddock is attempting to convince people that ATSIC is irresponsible and should be restrained.
This view has been compounded by what Kim Hill, ATSIC commissioner for the Northern Territory Northern Zone, says is "ATSIC continually being blamed for the failure of programs, such as health and education, over which ATSIC had no control".
The discrediting of the newly elected ATSIC board has opened the way for the government to implement the changes. Ruddock is hoping that the frustrations with ATSIC felt by many Indigenous leaders will help him.
With other attacks, such as the possible government dismissal of the elected Clark, flagged in the near future, ATSIC will need to win confidence and galvanise its supporters in opposition, or face ruin on the road to self-determination.
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, May 7, 2003.
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