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PARLIAMENTARY STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER
ADMINISTRATION OF ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS
11 APRIL 1989
Honourable members will recall that in November last year
the Government announced a number of inter-related inquiries
into the administration of Aboriginal affairs.
The background to the establishment of these inquiries was
material provided and statements made in Senate Estimates
Committee processes, and elsewhere, alleging serious
shortcomings in the administration, including financial
management, in the Aboriginal Development Commission and in
the Department of Aboriginal Affairs.
The Minister for Aboriginal Affairs announced in this
Chamber on 7 November 1988 that he had asked the
Auditor-General to undertake a comprehensive audit of the
Aboriginal Development Commission and to extend this, as
appropriate,. to the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. He
announced also that the Public Service Commissioner would be
investigating questions concerning personnel management in
the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and that the Department
of Finance would investigate any staff classification
issues. Furthermore, he announced that the Government recognised
that certain matters might still require further examination
in the light of these specialised investigations and that
the Government had asked Mr Andrew Menzies, AM, OBE, a
former Deputy Secretary of the Attorney-General's
Department, to make any such inquiry.
The Auditor-General and the Public Service Commissioner are,
of course, independent statutory officers, and the
Government made clear that Mr Menzies would also be
exercising an independent role in following up any
outstanding matters.
The Government also made it clear that each of these
inquiries should be as thorough as those conducting them
judged necessary.
It was the Government's intention from the outset that, in
the light of the outcome of these inquiries, it would
consider whatever steps might be necessary to address any
problems brought to light.
I am now able to advise Honourable Members that most of
these various inquiries have been completed. The Public
Service Commissioner and the Department of Finance have
completed their inquiries. moreover, as a result of a
further request from the minister for Aboriginal Affairs to
the Minister for Finance, the Department of Finance has
prepared a broader report on financial management in the
Aboriginal Development Commission.
2.
As Honourable Members already know, the Auditor-General has
completed a substantial part of his remit, with only a
report on some particular enterprise projects in the
Aboriginal Development Commission area which were brought to
notice in the Senate-yet to come.
Mr Menzies has completed an interim report which outlines
the process he is following in his enquiries and the matters
which he has excluded. In particular, he is not
re-examining issues which have been dealt with definitively
by the. Public Service Commissioner, the Department of
Finance or the Auditor-General in their reports.
Mr Menzies has identified two issues in the
Auditor-General's report which have not been or are not
being dealt with to finality by the Auditor-General and
which Mr Menzies sees as appropriate for his investigation.
He indicates that these two matters are under active
investigation, together with a comparatively small number of
matters arising from submissions received from the public or
otherwise brought to his attention.
Mr Menzies outlines in Part II of his interim report the
matters under investigation but recommends that that part of
the report not be published generally. The Government
accepts his recommendations that, in view of the continuing
investigations, Part II should not be published. It has,
however, been made available to the Leader of the
Opposition, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and
the Leader of the Australian Democrats.
I make the important point that, pending Mr Menzies, final
report, I shall not comment today upon the conduct of any
individual. Nor should others prejudge the findings..
Attempts to ascribe guilt by allegation or smear are simply
unacceptable. The Government also has, of course, the recommendations and
views of the Senate Select Committee on the Administration
of Aboriginal Affairs.
The Government is confident, therefore, that the primary
issues of administration in the area of Aboriginal affairs
have been covered in all the reports we have now received.
Against this background, I now table in the House all the
reports referred to, excepting the Auditor-General's report
which has already been tabled and Part II of Mr Menzies
report.
With the bulk of the inquiries now completed, the Government
is in a position to inform the Parliament of its views and
intentions concerning organisational arrangements for the
Aboriginal Affairs portfolio on the basis of thorough
consideration of the material now available to us. The
Minister for Aboriginal Affairs will be following me with a
detailed statement concerning these arrangements.
The Government, of course, stands ready to refine its
response, and undertake any further action, should that be
necessary, when the remaining reports are received. They
will, of course, also be tabled in the Parliament.
Madam Speaker,
At the outset it needs to be acknowledged that
administrative shortcomings, some of them serious, are
evident in the area of Aboriginal administration. The
Government does not sweep aside these shortcomings nor will
we shirk our responsibility to correct them.
In the case of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the
Auditor-General found that, overall, there was a lower than
acceptable standard of administration. Clearly,
administrative practices in a wide range of areas will have
to be tightened. The Government recognises this, the
Department knows it and some steps have been taken already.
The Department of Finance concluded, in relation to certain
staff classification matters, that the action taken by the
Department was not well founded in terms of classification
principles and processes. Honourable Members should note,
in this regard, that the Department of Aboriginal Affairs
has accepted the Department of Finance's conclusions, and
the necessity of appropriate corrective action.
On the other hand, I believe it is important to note that,
as the Auditor-General's and Public Service Commissioner's
inquiries found, some of the more vocal critics of the
Department were unable to provide evidence to back their
claims.
The Public Service Commissioner has not substantiated
allegations of patronage, favouritism, nepotism and cronyism
in the Department of Aboriginal Affairs. No hard evidence
was produced that would warrant investigation under the
Public Service Act.
The Public Service Commissioner's delegate,
Mr H B MacDonald, found no more than that there was an
occasional lack of prudence or judgement and that there were
some deficiencies in the Department's personnel practices,
most particularly an inordinate delay in approving an equal
employment opportunity program. Mr MacDonald also concluded
that it was essential to clarify the policy guidelines on
Aboriginalisation that is, enhancing access by Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander people to employment in the
Department. The much more fundamental problems brought to light in these
inquiries are in the programs administered by the Aboriginal
Development Commission rather than the Department.
The'Special Audit Report's major criticisms are directed at
the way the Aboriginal Development Commission administers
its enterprise funds pointing to a number of failed
enterprises and less than rigorous oversight by the
Commission. In nearly all cases mentioned in the report,
Audit found that the ADC had failed to apply the criteria
set out in its legislation, and concluded that the most
serious defects in administration were in the ADC's approval
procedures. it should also be noted that there are proposals in the
broader Department of Finance report for a strengthening of
administrative support in these areas, and for the exercise
of greater control, through clearer and more specific
ministerially endorsed guidelines.
The Government has taken these findings into account in the
response which I shall outline and on which the Minister's
statement will elaborate.
madam Speaker,
Before outlining the Government's response to the findings
of these inquiries, it is essential that I reaffirm the two
basic principles at stake in this crucial area of government
administration. There is, first, the imperative for self-management, by
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, of Government
programs designed to assist their well-being.
If there is one lesson that emerges from two hundred years
of contact between the original inhabitants of this country
and the Europeans who have arrived since 1788 it is this:
that after all the benign neglect, the paternalism and the
failed attempts at assimilation, we today realise that the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders themselves are the
best judges of their needs and priorities.
In recent years, the imperative of self-management has
received considerable bipartisan support and it is one to
which this Government has shown its fundamental commitment.
Second, there is the thoroughly complementary imperative for
proper ministerial responsibility and accountability for,
and effective parliamentary scrutiny of, programs as a
whole, especially in relation to their financial
administration. The nub of the issue before us then is finding the right
balance between the principles of self-management and of
overall ministerial responsibility.
many critics including in this House have failed to see
this need for balance. They have drawn the facile
conclusion that answers to the administrative shortcomings
that have been identified, especially in the Aboriginal
Development Commission, lie solely in winding back
self-management.
The Government believes it is possible indeed, it is vital
to strike a better balance; a balance that both widens and
deepens the opportunity for self-management, and establishes
a more appropriate means of financial accountability and
ministerial oversight.
That is precisely what the Government's proposed legislation
for the establishment of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Commission seeks to achieve.
It seeks to widen the scope for Aboriginal self-management
to encompass all of the programs undertaken within portfolio
agencies, and to deepen its real effectiveness by giving
Aboriginal people at a regional and local level a far more
specific responsibility to determine priorities and
outcomes. It seeks also to establish the right mechanism for
ministerial involvement which will genuinely uphold the
principle of accountability to the broader Australian
community. I take this opportunity to reaffirm the Government's
determination to proceed with the ATSIC legislation.
Nothing that has emerged from these inquiries has eroded the
Government's fundamental support for the concept and nature
of ATSIC. But we can and will draw on the work of the
Senate Committee and on the inquiries to refine and improve
the details.
In his statement today the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs
will describe the Government's intentions on amendments to
the ATSIC legislation, particularly in the light of the
report of the Senate Select Committee.
I believe it is appropriate in this context to remind
Honourable Members of some of the legislative history of
Aboriginal self-management, and in particular to point out
that the ADC itself was developed, under the previous
Government, with a less than conventional level of
ministerial oversight for a statutory authority.
I begin by quoting the words of Senator Neville Bonner, the
first Aboriginal Member of Parliament, in giving, on behalf
of the previous Government, the second reading speech on the
Aboriginal Development Commission Bill in the Senate on 21
November 1979.
He said, " The Government, in introducing the Aboriginal
Development Commission Bill, is taking steps to put into
effect what I have been saying for a number of years the
placing into Aboriginal hands of the control of Aboriginal
affairs." He went on to say that "..... Aboriginals will be
responsible for the decision making. of course ( he said)
this is not to say that Aboriginals also will not make
mistakes. It is to be expected that we will as we all do.
But Aboriginals should have greater sensitivity to
Aboriginal needs and they will learn from any mistakes they
make while exercising this responsibility".
As Honourable members will know the legislation to establish
the ADC was not actually passed until 1980. The amended
legislation, again in the words of Senator Bonner, was
designed to " strengthen the commitment to self-management"
and to achieve " further steps down the road to making
equality a reality for Aboriginal Australians". He was able
to say that because the weight of the responses to the
original Bill was to reduce the role of the minister and
expand the role of the Commission.
I would also remind Honourable members of some important
points made in that 1980 Senate debate by Senator Chaney,
the then Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.
He said, " there is an element of risk in Aboriginal
self-management. I think it is a risk which both the
previous Government and this Government have seen as a
worthwhile risk".
He also said, " I suggest to those Members of the Opposition
who are concerned, that they look at the limitations of*
ministerial power in this Bill as compared to the Bills that
the opposition when in Government put through the Parliament
in 1974 and 1975.
" I think they will see that we are progressing in the way
that one would expect towards withdrawing ministerial
authority. I do not suggest that the Bills that were passed
in 1974 were wrong for their time. I suggest that, as one
would expect, we are moving in a direction of increasing
Aboriginal control rather than ministerial control".
The significance of this recital of the background to the
ADC is that it shows that both sides of this Parliament have
made, and welcomed, moves to give Aboriginals a greater say
in the design and delivery of programs to advance their
status in Australian society. we all have been prepared to
accept what Senator Chaney termed " an element of risk".
In reaffirming my Government's support for ATSIC, I make the
point that, given this legislative history, the proposed new
Commission is the logical and appropriate next step for the
advancement of both the great principles of self-management
and ministerial accountability.
Not only do the reports of the inquiries not undermine the
Government's belief that ATSIC represents the correct way
forward we are encouraged by some of the positive
implications for ATSIC's basic structure in the inquiry
reports. For example, the Special Audit Report illustrates the
problems which can arise when one agency, the Aboriginal
Development Commission, confuses its activities in
enterprise funding with its own wider socio-economic
responsibilities, and those of other agencies. It also
points up some difficulties the Department of Aboriginal
Affairs has experienced in providing a balanced range of
services to communities in response to their expressed
needs.
While the Report does not draw any conclusion, the
Government notes that such problems as these would be
reduced by bringing the full range of programs under a
single administration, by eliminating the potential for
overlap, and by planning systematically on the basis of
communities' and regions' own priorities.
At the same time, the Government accepts that it cannot
proceed with these changes without addressing as effectively
as possible the administrative shortcomings brought to light
in the various inquiries, and the need for accountability
and appropriate ministerial involvement and parliamentary
scrutiny. The Government had already, in the development of the ATSIC
Bill, sought to provide for greater ministerial involvement
through the Minister being able to establish guidelines
within which the new body would be required to operate in
the administration of policies and programs, and being
closely involved in the monitoring of priority setting
through approval of estimates on a regional basis. These
controls are designed to prevent the possibility of any
radical departures from the approved estimates and policy
goals. Honourable Members will note that the Department of Finance
report tabled today recommends that the Minister should be
given a broad role to approve the estimates of the
Aboriginal Development Commission; should consult on the
Commission's corporate plan; and should issue broad policy
guidelines, especially where financial administration is
concerned. The ATSIC legislation which the Government is proposing will
meet those requirements.
We have, moreover, considered to what extent the thrust of
those recommendations should apply to the ADC while it
continues to function in the lead up to ATSIC, as the
Minister for Aboriginal Affairs will indicate in his
statement.
Also relevant is the recommendation made by the
Auditor-General that the Government review the business
enterprise provisions in the ATSIC Bill. The Government has
done so and a more detailed statement covering its
consideration of both the general financial accountability
and business enterprise provisions of the Bill will be made
by the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs.
The Government has also determined that it will respond to
the problems raised in the various inquiry reports, and to
the suggestions made by the Public Service Commissioner for
strengthened support, in the following ways.
We will amend the ATSIC legislation to establish an Office
of Evaluation and Audit, details of which will be provided
in the Minister's statement.
We will ensure that there are adequate resources provided to
the new Commission to enable these audit and reporting
functions to be carried out effectively.
We will make sure that there are sufficient resources,
including for training and by way of a temporary infusion of
specialist managerial skills, for the new Commission. The
Public Service Commissioner's reports pointed to the need
for better training and improved management practices, and
the Department of Aboriginal Affairs is discussing with the
Public Service Commissioner the best way to implement those
recommendations in the Department as it is now. Dr McIver,
in her report last year, as consultant on the new
Commission's staffing and administrative structure, also
concluded that a very active staff development program would
be vital in the Commission's early days.
Because the reports have highlighted the need for training
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who work in
community organisations, if they are to function with proper
financial management, the Government will look to how it can
intensify its efforts under the Aboriginal Organisations
Training Program.
More immediately, the Government recognises the need to
spell out and clarify the policy of Aboriginalisation for
specific staffing positions concerned with formulation of
policy for, and direct delivery of services to, Aboriginals,
especially within the Department of Aboriginal Affairs and
the new Commission.
We will require relevant Commonwealth agencies to establish
in consultation with the Public Service Commissioner and
relevant unions policy guidelines on enhancing access by
Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders to employment, and
that appropriate equal employment opportunity plans be in
place on the establishment of ATSIC.
9.
Madam Speaker,
It would not be appropriate to conclude this statement
without making mention of those many people whose diligence
and commitment to the cause of the Aboriginal people cannot
be questioned.
The efforts of so many of these Australians, Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal alike including those in the Department of
Aboriginal Affairs and the Aboriginal Development Commission
are beyond the demands of duty.
Indeed, some of the shortcomings that have been identified
have arisen, not from base motives, but from a genuine
determination to overcome the appalling disadvantage
suffered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
It is as a result of those efforts, over very many years,
that Government-sponsored programs are, gradually, improving
the health, housing, education and employment of Aboriginal
Australians and are, steadily, strengthening Aboriginal
communities through land rights, through enterprise
development, and through the provision of services to
improve basic living conditions.
My Government is proud that, in recognition of this vitally
important work, we have continued to make substantial real
increases in allocations to Aboriginal programs in an era
when it has been necessary to wind back the growth in
overall Commonwealth expenditure.
The inquiries have submitted the administration of
Aboriginal Affairs to an extraordinarily detailed scrutiny
and produced a wealth of material and analysis in a
relatively short time frame. The Government appreciates the
effort of all of the agencies and people involved, and I
take this opportunity to thank them for it.
Surely the time has now come, especially in this Parliament,
to cease the constant stream of allegation which has dogged
this vital area of government administration.
The Government's approach is, as I have indicated, to draw
upon the lessons from the inquiries and to look to the
future to ensure that mechanisms are put in place and
support provided so that future administration is on a sound
footing. We are determined to address administrative
problems in a way which ensures a higher quality of future
administration in this very important area of government
and, in the long run, a higher quality of life and sense of
belonging for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people.