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Administrative Arrangements in Australian Indigenous Affairs: Will they Ever Settle?

Administrative Arrangements in Australian Indigenous Affairs: Will they Ever Settle? To begin, a quote about administrative arrangements in Australian Indigenous affairs from Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in April 1973, addressing ‘State Ministers concerned with Aboriginal Affairs’. Having referred to the Commonwealth's new power flowing from the 1967 referendum and declared his government's intention to ‘assume full responsibility for policy’, Whitlam went on to say that it was not the ‘aim to establish an omnibus Department of Aboriginal Affairs’. Rather, the new government would:seek to devolve upon a wide range of Federal, State and local authorities, as well as upon organisations of Aboriginals themselves, responsibility for carrying out policies decided upon by my Government. These authorities would be responsible for Aboriginals in the same matters and in the same way as they are now functionally responsible for the community generally (Whitlam : 697).The conundrum that Whitlam identified is how to organise policy relating to a group of people within governments that are predominantly organised by function. If governments just rely on functional departments, it can feel like policy for the group of people is weak or non‐existent. If, on the other hand, governments create a strong organisation focused on the group of people, there is a risk that the functional http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Australian Journal of Public Administration Wiley

Administrative Arrangements in Australian Indigenous Affairs: Will they Ever Settle?

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References (4)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Australian Journal of Public Administration © 2017 Institute of Public Administration Australia
ISSN
0313-6647
eISSN
1467-8500
DOI
10.1111/1467-8500.12290
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

To begin, a quote about administrative arrangements in Australian Indigenous affairs from Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in April 1973, addressing ‘State Ministers concerned with Aboriginal Affairs’. Having referred to the Commonwealth's new power flowing from the 1967 referendum and declared his government's intention to ‘assume full responsibility for policy’, Whitlam went on to say that it was not the ‘aim to establish an omnibus Department of Aboriginal Affairs’. Rather, the new government would:seek to devolve upon a wide range of Federal, State and local authorities, as well as upon organisations of Aboriginals themselves, responsibility for carrying out policies decided upon by my Government. These authorities would be responsible for Aboriginals in the same matters and in the same way as they are now functionally responsible for the community generally (Whitlam : 697).The conundrum that Whitlam identified is how to organise policy relating to a group of people within governments that are predominantly organised by function. If governments just rely on functional departments, it can feel like policy for the group of people is weak or non‐existent. If, on the other hand, governments create a strong organisation focused on the group of people, there is a risk that the functional

Journal

Australian Journal of Public Administration – Wiley

Published: Jan 1, 2017

Keywords: ; ;

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