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A great leap forward for 14 chosen ones, a disaster for everyone else
Issue 68 - 10 Nov 2004
What can you say about the announcement of the National Indigenous Council, other than it’s a great leap forward for 14 chosen blackfellas, and a massive step backwards for the remaining 399,986 (or thereabouts)?
The abolition of ATSIC and its replacement with a government advisory board sets the fight for Indigenous rights back decades.
There’s nothing wrong with the composition of the NIC, per se. Indeed it’s staffed by some very impressive people. West Australian magistrate Sue Gordon is undoubtedly an eminent Aboriginal woman and will bring strong and relevant advice to the government. Similarly, Brisbane-based lawyer Tammy Williams is an immensely talented young woman. John Moriarty, Joseph Elu... the list goes on. The NIC looks good on paper, no dispute.
The problem is not who is on the NIC - Jesus Christ himself could preside over quarterly meetings and it would still be an unmitigated disaster - the problem is the NIC itself. It can never and will never speak for Aboriginal people. The fact that it replaces a body that could - ATSIC - dooms it to failure.
NIC members may be able to convince themselves - like Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone seems determined to do - that the NIC is not a replacement for ATSIC.
But they won’t convince anyone else.
NIC members might also be able to convince themselves that, in spite of nine years of remaining deaf to Aboriginal disadvantage, this government will listen to them. After all, why would they go to so much trouble to appoint an eminent body of people, only to ignore their advice?
Two words. Mr Djerrkura.
He was the last appointed head of ATSIC and he was comprehensively sidelined when he started saying things the government didn’t want to hear.
Two more words. ATSIC Review.
It cost Australian taxpayers $1.5 million and was similarly staffed by three eminent Australians - Jackie Huggins, John Hannaford and Bob Collins.
The ATSIC Review found that the future for service delivery of government programs to Indigenous people lies with a strengthened ATSIC model, not an abolished one.
The NIC might like to ponder that thought when it sits down to meet in December.
It might also like to ponder its ‘no win’ position.
If the NIC provides the government with frank and fearless advice - as it should - it will be sidelined. Irrefutable fact. But even worse, if it works ‘effectively’ with the government, the NIC will be accused of only providing the advice the government wants to hear.
There can be no other outcome because to believe otherwise means believing this government does want justice for Aboriginal people.
It doesn’t. All it wants is to get re-elected. Period. And you don’t achieve that by ‘pandering’ to two percent of the population.
While they’re at it, NIC members may also like to ponder how some might view it as the height of arrogance to believe that abolishing a full-time, democratically-elected body which boasted 406 representatives and replacing it with a part-time, hand-picked council of 14 people - eminent or otherwise - could possibly be considered a better outcome for Aboriginal people.
Countless international studies have shown that self-determination is the only way way to beat Indigenous disadvantage.
How the new NIC members rationalise their part in its demise is a matter for them.
But how the Howard government - in the absence of a black scapegoat in the form of ATSIC - explains away the inevitable failure of its Indigenous Affairs policy in three years time is a matter for us all.
Our early forecast? They’ll blame the states... and the Australian media will swallow it hook, line and sinker.
Chris Graham
Editor
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