Mainstreaming indigenous service delivery

From 1988 until 2004, the policy framework for indigenous affairs in and beyond remote Australia marched to a different drumbeat. In this period there was an effort, via the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), to build a separate structure which both redressed indigenous disadvantage and created a context for indigenous voice and engagement. ATSIC had been established in 1987. By the time of the election of the Howard government (1996) ATSICs achievements had been increasingly overwhelmed in public and indigenous perceptions by its failings. Following an enquiry, which recommended a contrary course, and not without substantial controversy, ATSIC was abolished in 2004 (Hannaford, Huggins and Collins, 2003; also submissions from W. Gray and W. Sanders: the report and these submissions all recommended a re-structured organisation). Abolition received bipartisan support. Thereafter policy was 'mainstreamed' with responsibility for ATSIC programmes distributed to relevant line departments. The abolition of ATSIC was accompanied by a new governance structure. This involved at least three elements: the development of strategic capacity and focus within the Commonwealth government; the development of federal-state machinery; and the establishment of new on-the-ground delivery arrangements. These are briefly considered.