In the name of failure: The Howard government's generational revolution in Indigenous affairs

Will Sanders (Senior Fellow, CAEPR)
CAEPR - Seminar Series August 02, 2007 (Streaming Audio, MP3)
Abstract: Since 2004, the Howard government has used the idea of past policy failure to introduce major new organisational arrangements in Indigenous affairs. In the name of failure, after fifteen years, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) was abolished and its programs were re-assigned to 'mainstream' Commonwealth departments. A Commonwealth Secretaries Group on Indigenous Affairs (SGIA) was significantly enhanced and a National Indigenous Council (NIC) and a Ministerial Taskforce on Indigenous Affairs (MTIA) were established. Further down the hierarchy of Commonwealth administration, both a central Office of Indigenous Policy Coordination (OIPC) and regional Indigenous Coordination Centres (ICCs) were established and built up. Through these new organisational arrangements, the fourth term Howard government has also put considerable effort into new agreement making at State/ Territory, regional and local levels through bi-lateral Commonwealth State/Territory agreements, Regional Partnership Agreements and local Shared Responsibility Agreements. From June 2007, also in the name of past failure, the Howard government has also now begun developing its 'national emergency' response to allegations of widespread child sexual abuse in Aboriginal communities.