Fed: Communities must be involved in service delivery - Labor

AAP General News (Australia)
04-18-2004
Fed: Communities must be involved in service delivery - Labor

CANBERRA, April 18 AAP - Indigenous communities deserved much closer involvement in
the delivery of services after ATSIC was scrapped, Labor said today.

Federal opposition indigenous affairs spokesman Kerry O'Brien said self-determination
was not an idea that had failed with ATSIC's difficulties.

"We believe that self-determination is more than a vote every few years, which is,
essentially for a lot of people, what the current model is," Senator O'Brien told ABC
TV.

"We want to empower communities to be involved in partnerships and to have a say in
the way that services are delivered, how they're delivered and by whom they're delivered
in their communities.

"We think that's got a lot more to do with determining their futures and that's self-determination,
as part of an empowerment of the community."

Prime Minister John Howard last week announced a plan to abolish the Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC).

Senator O'Brien said a model put forward by Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare
Martin was not inconsistent with federal Labor's.

"What we want to do is have the communities working in partnerships with the agencies
such as health departments and education departments so that there is a role for the communities
in how those services are delivered," he said.

AAP dep/tma/jlw

KEYWORD: ATSIC LABOR

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