andrew bolt on protest, page-2

Lets forget about color for one moment...

In Australia we got two groups.

One group that works hard, pays taxes and builds and maintains infastructures...

The second group sits on its A***, complains all day long and gets Centerlink and tell us they need more of everything.

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Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander CommissionFrom Wikipedia

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) (1990–2005) was the Australian Government body through which Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders were formally involved in the processes of government affecting their lives. A number of indigenous programs and organisations fell under the overall umbrella of ATSIC.

The agency was dismantled in 2004 in the aftermath of corruption allegations and litigation. ATSIC was criticised for being dominated by males.


ATSIC was established by Bob Hawke's Labor government through the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 (the ATSIC Act), which took effect on 5 March 1990.

While ATSIC's existence was always subject to the oversight of governments, who represent all Australians, ATSIC was a group of elected individuals whose main goal was the oversights that happened to Indigenous Australians. This included people from the many Aboriginal communities on the Australian mainland, Tasmania and other off-shore islands, and the ethnically distinct people from the many Melanesian communities inhabiting the islands of the Torres Strait, collectively known as Torres Strait Islanders. Later the Torres Strait Regional Authority took over responsibility for programs in the Torres Strait Islands.

The chairpersons of ATSIC were Lowitja O'Donoghue (1990-1996), Gatjil Djerrkura (1996-2000), Geoff Clark (2000-2004) and Lionel Quartermaine (2003-2004). ATSIC'S Deputy chairs included Ray Robinson.

Corruption investigationsA review of ATSIC was commissioned in 2003. The report was titled In the Hands of the Regions: A New ATSIC and it recommended reforms which gave greater control of ATSIC to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people at a regional level. At the time, Indigenous Affairs Minister Amanda Vanstone stated that the review had concluded that ATSIC has not connected well with the indigenous Australians and was not serving them well.

In 2003, ATSIC became embroiled in controversy over litigation surrounding its Chairperson Geoff Clark, relating to his alleged participation in a number of gang rapes in the 1970s and 1980s. ATSIC was also investigated for financial corruption, and the embezzlement of ATSIC's funds, that were originally intended for service delivery to help Aborigines.

Soon after this the Howard government began to remove some of ATSIC's fiscal powers, which were transferred to a new independent organisation, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Services (ATSIS).

The government ultimately suspended Geoff Clark as Chairperson of ATSIC in 2003 (Lionel Quartermaine was acting Chairperson). After a court appeal Clark was briefly reinstated. In the same year, Clark was arrested for brawling in a Victorian bar.

All of it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_and_Torres_Strait_Islander_Commission