this post was submitted on 18 Jul 2023
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (5 children)

One thing that aggravates my parents (definite No voters) is that there is no acknowledgement from the Yes campaign of the internal failures of previous bodies like ATSIC. It's fair to state that the government dismantled bodies like ATSIC, but the Yes campaign seem to be deliberately hiding or ignoring the fraud, corruption, ineffectiveness, and nepotism that existed in these organisations.

One can read all about the structural problems, lack of accountability, and failure to deliver results that were detailed in the parliamentary findings on ATSIC. https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Former_Committees/indigenousaffairs/report/final/c02

If you have library access, the 2003 report, In the Hand of the Regions, is also worth a read: https://www.jstor.org/stable/26479564

There were also criminal investigations launched into both the Chief of ATSIC, Geoff Clark, and the deputy chairman, "Sugar" Ray Robinson.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11071533/Geoff-Clark-ex-ATSIC-chief-facing-2million-fraud-charges-threatens-senator-Jacinta-Price.html
https://www.smh.com.au/national/former-atsic-leader-sugar-ray-in-court-20060118-gdmsov.html

For No voters like my parents, they question why we should force a similar organisation into the Constitution, particularly when there were so many systemic (and even criminal) problems with ATSIC.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

In all honesty, having read those same reports in the past (does it make me a weirdo that I enjoy reading this kind of thing?) I note that many of the individuals involved in this corruption were installed by LNP governments (tempted to say "of future past," because that just sounds fun). I smell false flag on their part, as they have been known to install cronies into organisations they're opposed to so they can tear it down and claim they're 'fixing' them

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The corruption happened because they were given a budget with no oversight. The Voice is only an advisory body with no budget to control.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

I'd honestly ask them what the fuck that has to do with enshrining Indigenous representation in parliament tbh.

Oh no a govt body was corrupt!!! Do they want to remove the ability for all Australians to vote because of robodebt? Because that makes as much fcking sense.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes, I’m sure that’s their defining motivator…

It’s not at all that they’re ignorant, rusted on, bigots

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Perhaps, but calling them names and hurling insults is never going to change their mind. It may even embolden their position because name-calling usually means that you don't have a good response to their argument.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

posted in wrong thread

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

Agreed. One of my family members worked for ATSIC from the beginning, wanting to do good. They resigned in disgust at the corruption before it was exposed and torn down. It's an ugly bit of history that is being ignored.