The ACT Government recently announced a review of the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body.
This announcement comes as no surprise given the voter turn-out for the most recent election was less than it has ever been. Indeed, the ACT Auditor-General last year (C Times 19 Aug 2023) predicted that the body would become “ineffective” due to low voter turnout.
The ACT Elected Body is an anachronism of past misunderstandings and deliberate confusion, it has indeed become irrelevant and should be scrapped.
The ACT Elected Body fails because many of the Aboriginal people of the ACT do not see the Elected Body as genuinely representing their interests or as a voice for their needs and aspirations.
The obvious question that must be asked is: What has the Elected Body done in terms of closing the gap of Indigenous disadvantage for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in the ACT?
The statistics on disadvantage continue to speak for themselves. For example, the incarceration and child separation rates in the ACT are amongst the worst in Australia. The existence of the Elected Body has made no difference on any of these matters.
The ACT Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Elected Body should have been focusing on ‘Closing the Gap’ and representing all Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander people who live in the ACT. It cannot deal with matters relating to traditional owners’ connections to and responsibilities for Country.
The First Nation Party is therefore calling for it to be scrapped because it has become irrelevant to the needs and aspirations of the local Aboriginal people of the ACT.
The ACT Government needs to accept there are at least three Aboriginal groups with connections to the ACT and surrounds: the Ngunnawal, the Ngambri (Kamberri) and Ngarigo. Each of these groups must be equally recognised and respected for their cultural connections to Country. There is a big difference between working with those three groups and working to Close the Gap and end the disadvantages endured by Indigenous people.
The ACT Government fails to understand that it has two distinct responsibilities.
Firstly, it has a moral and ethical responsibility to treat and work with all of the Aboriginal groups with connections to the ACT on all matters that affect their land and water rights and interests, and with their free, prior and informed consent in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. Until such time as the Federal Court of Australia determines otherwise under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth), the ACT Government and the Commonwealth must work with all three groups with connections to the ACT, equally and without discrimination. This is something the ACT Government does not understand. For over 20 years the ACT Government has refused to work equally and without discrimination with all three groups, always opting to favour one group over all other groups with connections to the ACT. With respect, the ACT Government has never explained how it arrived at that decision.
Secondly, the ACT Government is a signatory to the 2020 National Agreement on Closing the Gap. The ACT Government therefore has the same responsibility as all other governments around Australia to Close the Gap of Indigenous disadvantage experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in the ACT when compared to the rest of the population.
The ACT Government needs to deal with these two matters quite separately because under Aboriginal law, Aboriginal people cannot speak for other peoples’ Country.
The ACT Elected Body has no role to play in the first matter. On the second matter, the Elected Body has failed, and the low voter turn-out for its most recent election is a clear vindication that the wider Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people think it has little, if any relevance to them.
It should be scrapped and replaced with a Truth Telling Commission and treaty Authority.
