Outrage as Australia abolishes 'failed' Aboriginal council

The Australian government angered the Aboriginal population yesterday by announcing plans to abolish an elected commission set up to give them control of their own affairs.

Legislation will be introduced next month to scrap the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (Atsic), effective immediately. The Prime Minister, John Howard, said: "We believe very strongly that the experiment in elected representation for indigenous people has been a failure." The institution would not be replaced, he said.

Aboriginal leaders deplored the move as a massively retrograde step. Alison Anderson, an Atsic commissioner, said: "This is a racist government that has just indicated how poorly it feels about indigenous people."

Atsic was established in 1990 to deliver services to Aboriginal communities and until recently had a budget of $A1bn (£416m). Run by officials elected by indigenous people, it was seen as a bold venture offering self-determination and a degree of autonomy to Australia's demoralised black population.

For many years, however, it has been plagued by claims of corruption, mismanagement and nepotism, and even its constituents regarded it as ineffective and remote. Many had called for it to be reformed, but the announcement it would not be succeeded by another elected body shocked even its critics.

Instead, the government will rely on the input of a group of handpicked indigenous advisers. Atsic's funds will be absorbed by government departments and allocated by bureaucrats, a prospect that smacks to many of paternalism.

Lionel Quartermaine, the acting Atsic chairman, said the "mainstreaming" of indigenous affairs would not resolve the chronic health, employment and housing problems that blighted Aboriginal communities. "This will do nothing to help indigenous people," he said. "Mainstreaming has failed in the past, and it will fail in the future."

In recent years Atsic's problems have been personified by its suspended chairman, Geoff Clark, who was convicted of brawling in a pub and accused of raping several women, charges that he denies.

As an opposition MP Mr Howard attacked the plan to set up Atsic, saying it would divide Australia on the basis of race. The controversy swirling around Mr Clark has provided him with the perfect opportunity to swing the axe.

The opposition Labor Party will support the legislation. Its new leader, Mark Latham, had planned to scrap Atsic, although he said it would be replaced by a new elected body.