Representing Indigenous Australians' interests

However I’m mindful that the majority of traditional owner groups around the country are not headed by elders. In fact I’m aware that in certain areas elders have been deliberately excluded from native title deliberations as their views conflict with the agenda of others.

I’m aware that native title fights, verbal and physical, have occurred within families of some traditional owner groups that have split families forever. Families who stuck by each other through the good and bad times for generations are now no longer on talking terms because of conflict that has emanated from native title disputes.

So I wouldn’t venture down the path of locking in the elder’s model to best represent the interests of Indigenous Australians.

The whole regional council and zone commissioner model of the old ATSIC became far too cumbersome to administer. The sheer cost involved in bringing people together for meetings was, in most cases, an exercise in futility because decisions were often biased towards the dominant members of the council.

ATSIC, by its own doing, had reached a critical point of no return in 2004 and was in a fight with the government that it was never going to win. ATSIC representatives attempted to counter punch their way out of an exhausting tussle with the government but sadly the writing was on the wall.

Things became terminal for ATSIC the moment the leader of the opposition, Mark Latham, lent bipartisan support to the government to abolish it.

What replaces the old defunct model is anyone’s guess. But a more modest-sized elected Indigenous representation with selected Indigenous experts to add weight to the body has, I believe, far more merit.

My proposed elected representative body would be comprised of 35 people. These people would be elected from the old ATSIC regional council areas. Each state would elect one person from their group to represent them at the national level.

The make up of national representation would comprise one delegate from the Torres Strait Islands, Queensland, New South Wales, ACT, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory - giving a total of nine members.

I don’t believe there is any need to have a regional council of 12 members for each of the 35 regional council areas as I’m confident that one person in close consultation with their existing Indigenous Co-ordinating Council staff could perform the same function without all the politics that impaired progress in the past.

Each elected member would be adequately resourced with staff and other essential services to carry out their function.

With the removal of long standing regional councils, where representatives were automatically elected due to family size alone, new players should emerge confident in the knowledge that they will not have to navigate the minefields of Indigenous politics that was around previously.