ATSIC must be replaced by a new body without 'flexible integrity'

On a recent exercise with an experienced Four Corners team in rural Queensland I witnessed their producer and journalist, hardened from assignments in war-torn Africa and Eastern Europe, brought literally to tears on hearing the depressing stories of Indigenous people living in this town. So moved were they (producer, journalist, camera man and sound technician) by what they had just filmed that they all contributed to a hat-collection and bought several boxes of groceries for the large family they had got to know who were living in squalid conditions.

I speak of my home town of Cunnamulla (the answer to the question at the beginning of story) where my relatives who live in ATSIC funded houses live in despair while my relatives who live next door in State Housing Commission homes live in relative luxury with unlimited hot water, electrical wiring that meets strict health and safety regulations and where the compulsory installation of reverse cycle air-conditioning keeps them out of harm's way when the temperature reaches high-40s in summer and bitterly sub-zero temperatures in winter.

Try asking the relatives from the former group if they would support mainstreaming or would they fight to maintain the status quo with ATSIC.

Where to from here?

Very simple – We need to go back to the old days of the National Aboriginal Conference, ATSIC’s predecessor, with a structure as follows:

• 18 directors (body to be called the Australian National Indigenous Peoples Assembly, ANIPA and to represent the same geographic area as current ATSIC Commissioners) – Elections to be conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission within three months.
• Abolish Regional Councils.
• Rename ATSIC/ATSIS with the Department of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, DATSIA. (Minister must be a cabinet minister with the specific portfolio of Indigenous Affairs)
• Replace all ATSIC Regional, State and National offices with the name DATSIA and maintain existing staff (reclassify and readvertise positions gradually over 12-month period)
• ANIPA to be an advisory body only with no direct input into the administrative role performed by DATSIA.
• ANIPA to be adequately funded with secretariat, media advisers and a large research team of experienced post graduate Indigenous academics (minimum of $25m annual budget)
• Elections every four years.