The most damning finding by the Federal Governmentcommissioned inquiry into the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission is not the failure of ATSIC’s long-term programs to elevate the lives and esteem of its 460,000 constituents. It isn’t the allegations of financial mismanagement, the poor return on taxpayers’ $1.1 billion investment. It isn’t even claims of violence and hints of corruption against some senior indigenous leaders. To one degree or another, these failings were recognised by Australians. The more telling finding is that ATSIC’s credibility and standing with its own constituency are at ‘crisis point’. The peak indigenous body clearly no longer represents the aspirations of Aborigines and islanders. It is...
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