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Is this the end of the road for National Congress?
National Aboriginal Conference Chairman Jim Hagan, second from left, having lunch in Geneva with a fellow NAC member, his secretariat staff and World Council of Churches representative before making his historic address to the United Nations over the Nookanbah mining dispute with Western Australia government in 1980. Image supplied.
by Stephen Hagan remember sitting near the front row in the Ballroom of the Park Royal Hotel in Canberra for the inauguration of the National Aboriginal Conference (NAC) after the 35 successful candidates were elected in 1977. It was a special day for me as a young lad who had just completed Year 12 at a boarding school in Brisbane to be in Canberra with my mum Jean to witness my father Jim being sworn in as the Deputy Chairman of the NAC to Lowitja Donaghue as his Chairperson by Prime Minister Malcomn Fraser. Also on the official table that day was Federal Opposition Leader Bill Hayden and Fraser’s Minister for Aboriginal Affairs Ian Viner. The National Aboriginal
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Conference succeeded the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee (NACC) which was created in 1973 under the Gough Whitlam Labor government. Dad was also elected Deputy Chairman to Lowitja in the NACC - Australia’s first ever experiment with a government funded, AEC conducted, democratic elected First Nations body - and remained her deputy in the NAC. Back then the NAC was established by the government to provide a forum for the expression of Aboriginal views. In early 1978, the NAC Secretariat replaced an interim unit that operated within the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. On October 26, 1978, the NAC became the first Aboriginal body to be incorporated under the Aboriginal Councils and
Associations Act 1976-78, being registered as the Aboriginal Corporation of the National Aboriginal Confenence. But on that special day of the NAC inauguration in the Ballroom of the Park Royal, I truly felt I was amongst Aboriginal royality when I met Charles Perkins for the very first time. As an impressionable young lad I felt like I was a kid in a lolly factory not knowing who I should talk to in a room full of First Nations celebrities. That was the first time I’d ever been in a room with so many well dressed, beautiful and politically inspiring First Nations leaders. Dad later succeeded Lowitja as the Chairman of the NAC and amongst his notable achievements he became the first First Nations leader to address the United Page 1
Nations in 1980 after the Federal Government failed to intervene in Western Australia Premier Charles Court’s approval of a mining exploration permit to mine on sacred land at Noonkanbah; Chaired the Makarrata committee to look at a treaty with the government; and being award an Order of Australia for his work in Aboriginal affairs. From a very young age I was immersed in Aboriginal politics: dad was a member of the Labor Party when we lived in a fringe camp on the outskirts of town; we had politicians visit our home when we moved into town to gain his support for black votes during election time; when he was elected in 1973 to the NACC he was away from home and I became aware of his strong advocacy work at the local, regional, state, national and international level. The NAC, like the NACC before it, later morphed into the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC). ATSIC had a couple of terms during its reign between 1990 - 2005. The Bob Hawke Government’s intention to establish ATSIC was formally announced in December 1987 in a speech to the Parliament entitled ‘Foundations for the Future’, by the new Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Gerry Hand. Not all First Nations people with whom Minister Hand consulted responded positively to the ATSIC proposal. The Aboriginal Development Commission (ADC) commissioners, for example, opposed the proposal quite strongly, largely out of concern that welfare programs would be prioritised in an amalgamated body, at the expense of the development work then carried out by the ADC. Not long after they made their opposition known, Hand dismissed eight of the ten ADC commissioners. When the revised ATSIC legislation was introduced into the Parliament in May 1989 its
new accountability measures did not guarantee its quick passage through the Parliament: over 90 amendments were made to the legislation in the following six months. At that time the ATSIC Bill was the second-most amended piece of legislation to have passed through the Parliament since Federation. The Coalition was vehemently opposed to the ATSIC legislation as many saw ATSIC as a kind of ‘black parliament’, a concept to which they were staunchly opposed. The Opposition was heavily involved in amending the legislation, and voted against its final passage. Conversely, the Australian Democrats were also heavily involved in amending the ATSIC Bill when it went to the Senate, however, their involvement seemed to be borne out of a desire to strengthen the ability of the legislation to give effect to the principles including that of the policy of ‘selfdetermination’espoused in it. Fast forward to 15 April 2004 and again Australia saw a change in the elected black government process when Prime Minster John Howard announced ATSIC was to be abolished saying that “the experiment in elected representation for Indigenous people has been a failure.” ATSIC was formally abolished at midnight on 24 March 2005. It took another six years for the next phase in the history of a representative body - this time one that wasn’t elected by First Nations people through elections conducted by the Australian Electoral Commission - to take effect. In 2011 the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples became at least in their marketing material - the new national representative body for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. The first National Congress meeting of 120 delegates was held in June 2011. In a complex election
process every two years Chambers 1 and 2 hold elections for their 40 delegates. Organisations that are members of those chambers have the right to vote for these delegates. Individuals that nominate to be in Chamber 3 are assessed against criteria by both the Ethics Council and the National Board. Gender parity and adequate representation of the membership are included as part of the process to pick the 40 members for this chamber. On 8 July 2011 National Congress elected a board of 8 members with co-chairs Les Malezer and Jody Broun steering the ship. Other board members to take their seat at the first meeting included Venessa Curnow, Brian Butler, Rod Little, Dennis Eggington, Daphne Yarram and Tammy Solonec. With the elections due to fall for half the National Congress board members in June, one wonders whether the new membership will see the light of day after December this year when their government funding expires. Opposition Indigenous Affairs spokeman, Senator Nigel Scullion told First Nations Telegraph last week that: “When the National Congress of Australia’s First peoples was being designed, a vital principle was that the body should be at arm’s length from Government. The $30m Gillard Government establishment grant terminates in 2013 on the clear expectation that Congress would have to raise its own funds from then on.” If the National Congress haven’t secured funding from a non-government source by now they’d better make sure they find a rich sponsor with a philanthropic outlook on Indigenous self government before December 31. Otherwise, based on the recalcitrant position of the federal opposition, the National Congress’ June elections will be a waste of time.