The Senate must act to stop the erosion of Indigenous representation

As well as the government again being caught out making it up as they go, they have a fundamental problem with the legitimacy and the practical reality of the proposed appointed National Council.

A reality that begs the question as to why the bureaucracy does not already have the necessary expertise under the newly announced mainstream arrangements, if these are so good?

One that only underlines the necessity for a regional and national elected Indigenous representative body.

To whom do governments go to identify the needs and solutions of the Aboriginal community, and who can do so with authority, a mandate and with legitimacy? And how?

The history of Aboriginal affairs in Australia shows that mainstream bureaucracy has proven incapable of doing this. The record of government in the past eight years, and in the latest federal budget, only attests further to this systemic failure.

Indeed, the government’s own changes, which seek to remove ATSIC, clearly admit this very point, as do the most recent authoritative reports: the ATSIC Review report, the Productivity Commission and Grants Commission reports; as does Secretary Shergold’s manifesto on mainstreaming.

Further evidence of this major flaw in the government’s position is that it has had to retain ATSIC Regional Councils for a further 12 months.

Who else, bar a few Indigenous Councils mainly in Queensland and the Northern Territory, will the proposed new mainstream system of government agencies engage with to help make the new mainstream system work?

The bottom line now is: what is to replace ATSIC?

The government’s failure to replace ATSIC with a national elected representative body has been widely condemned, even in some conservative media.

In fact, we are seeing more factual elements and a far more informed public debate on Aboriginal affairs in the past few weeks than we have seen for years.

Yet neither Labor nor the other parties – nor the government for that matter - has properly consulted on any replacement model.