Harris, Lachlan --- "Amendments to the ATSIC Act" [2002] IndigLawB 56; (2002) 5(20) Indigenous Law Bulletin 4

Amendments to the ATSIC Act

by Lachlan Harris

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Amendment Act 2002 (Cth) (the ‘Amendment Act’) was passed by the Commonwealth Parliament on 27 June this year. The Amendment Act amends the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 (Cth) (the ‘ATSIC Act’). The government put forward these amendments in response to recommendations contained in reviews of ATSIC, carried out under ss 26 and 141 of the ATSIC Act. These reviews were carried out in 1997 and 1998 respectively.[1] The Amendment Act amends the ATSIC Act in three major areas.

Firstly, the Amendment Act amends clauses governing the appointment, terms of office and eligibility for election to certain statutory offices within ATSIC. Changes include new rules governing the transitional control of regional councils between the holding of an election and the determination of a final result; and a declaration that people with even a single criminal conviction are not eligible to stand for election to the offices of Regional Councillor or ATSIC Commissioner. The Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs, Phillip Ruddock, told Parliament that ‘[t]he bill will permit greater certainty in regard to the position of current office holders and their eligibility for election’.[2]

The second major area of amendment contained in the Amendment Act, focuses on the review process for decisions made by ATSIC. Decisions regarding loans or guarantees made under the ATSIC Act will now be reviewable decisions. All challenges will also now have to progress through the full gambit of internal ATSIC review mechanisms before they can be forwarded to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for external review. Mr Ruddock claimed the new review process ‘will enable the commission to delegate its power to review delegates’ decisions, allowing for a more efficient consideration of a refusal to provide a loan or guarantee within ATSIC’.[3]

The final area of amendment revolves around financial and accounting mechanisms within the ATSIC budgetary system. The federal government claims that ‘[t]he bill was developed in close consultation with ATSIC and has the support of its commissioners’.[4]

Shadow Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Dr Carmen Lawrence, while supporting the bill, told Parliament that ‘it does not go far enough’.[5] Dr Lawrence argued that the amendments contained in the bill failed to take the necessary steps to ensure that ATSIC is able to fulfil its role as ‘Australia’s principle democratically elected Indigenous organisation’.[6]

The amendments do adopt the ‘administrative and legal’ changes suggested by the 1997 review panel report, made under s 141 of the ATSIC Act, on the ATSIC electoral system and boundaries. However, the amendments fail to adopt any of the ‘substantive changes to the act to improve its operation to strengthen ATSIC's capacity to address the aspirations and needs of indigenous people over the next five years and beyond',[7] as suggested by the 1998 review under s 26 of the ATSIC Act.

The 1998 report goes on to suggest that greater regional autonomy within ATSIC’s structure is vital to improving the efficiency of service delivery to ATSIC’s Indigenous clients. This push for autonomy is consistent with a wider movement supporting Indigenous self-determination as the primary means of achieving successful delivery of government services to Indigenous Australians. In line with the government’s focus on ‘practical reconciliation’, the amendments contained in the bill fail to answer this call for increased Indigenous self-determination.

The bill is posted on the Australian Parliament web site located at www.aph.gov.au.

Lachlan Harris is the editor of the Australian Indigenous Law Reporter, and is currently completing a combined arts/law degree at the University of New South Wales.

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[1] Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 15 May 2002, 2272.

[2] Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 13 March 2002, 1109.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Commonwealth, Parliamentary Debates, House of Representatives, 15 May 2002, 2272.

[6] Ibid.

[7] Ibid.