DIMIA Annual Report 2001-02
FAMILY POLICY AND RECONCILIATION
Objective
To provide policy advice to government, and policy coordination with external agencies.
Description
OATSIA is responsible for policy advice on family wellbeing and community issues and on reconciliation.
Key results
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played a major part in developing a proposal for a national audit of Indigenous family violence services.
The audit is auspiced jointly by the Ministerial Council for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (MCATSIA) and the National Indigenous Working Group on Violence, and funded by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) -
continued to monitor and report on Commonwealth responses to Bringing Them Home: Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families.
A 12 month report detailing progress for the period December 2000 to December 2001 is at Appendix 9 -
began managing, on behalf of the MCATSIA, an independent consultancy which is evaluating the effectiveness of all government and non-government responses to the recommendations of the Bringing Them Home report
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worked with a range of agencies and non-government bodies to promote opportunities for advancing reconciliation
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provided funding to Reconciliation Australia to assist it to deliver the Indigenous Governance Conference.
Participants at the 11 June meeting of CEOs and representatives
from the Indigenous affairs wing of the portfolio:
Back Row: Joe Mastrolembo (ORAC), Mike Fordham (TSRA), Ian
Myers (IBA), Bill Farmer (Secretary, DIMIA), Russell Taylor
(AIATSIS), Mick Gooda (ATSIC), Steve Davis (DIMIA).
Front Row: Rod Alfredson (OEA); William (Smiley) Johnstone
(ILC), Keith Clarke (AHL), Geoff Scott (ATSIC), Peter Vaughan
(OATSIA)
SERVICE DELIVERY AND PERFORMANCE
Objective
To provide policy advice to government, and policy coordination with external agencies.
Description
OATSIA is responsible for policy advice to the Minister, and policy coordination with external agencies across the key elements of practical reconciliation: education; employment; health; housing and infrastructure; data and statistics; and telecommunications and information technology.
It is also the central point within the department for driving the Council of Australian Government's (COAG) framework for advancing reconciliation and the government's approach to the Commonwealth Grants Commission (CGC) inquiry into Indigenous funding.
Key results
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significant input to Cabinet coordination comments and ministerial briefing in respect of health, housing, employment, education, telecommunications, and defence matters
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significant contribution to developing the core elements of what became the MCATSIA inter-governmental agreement on a Proposal for Indigenous Outcomes Performance Monitoring
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through MCATSIA, assisted a number of Ministerial Councils prepare their Indigenous Action Plans, in response to the COAG Framework to Advance Reconciliation of November 2000
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following liaison with the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), the ABS has agreed to use the Accessibility and Remoteness Index of Australia (ARIA) to map Indigenous disadvantage by remoteness in its February 2003 publication on Indigenous people from the 2001 Census
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coordination of the government response to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs (HORSCATSIA) report on the needs of urban dwelling Indigenous people, We Can Do It!
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coordination of the government response to the CGC Report on Indigenous Funding 2001
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worked with the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts on the Telecommunications Action Plan for Remote Indigenous Communities (TAPRIC)
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worked with ATSIC on the development of an Indigenous Environmental Health Strategy
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worked with the Department of Family and Community Services on the framework for the next Commonwealth State Housing Agreement and, together with ATSIC, on the distribution of new housing and infrastructure funds from the 2001-02 Budget.
LEGAL AND INTERNATIONAL
Objective
To provide policy advice, and to instruct on and manage the conduct of litigation.
Description
OATSIA provided policy advice on international issues affecting Indigenous people, and instructed on and managed the conduct of litigation in a number of cases in which the Commonwealth's responsibilities in Indigenous affairs are involved.
The Commonwealth did not initiate any litigation in the Indigenous affairs portfolio.
Key results
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supported the Australian delegations to the World Conference Against Racism, Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001, and to the inaugural session of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in New York, USA, in May 2002.
Through the Permanent Forum, Indigenous people now have an avenue to report directly to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations on matters of interest to them -
continued to be involved in negotiations surrounding the Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People
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the section contributed to briefings on the World Summit on Sustainable Development, which will be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002 and on the World Intellectual Property Organisation Intergovernmental Committee on Intellectual Property and Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge and Folklore, which met in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 2001 and June 2002
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instructed on and managed the conduct of litigation in a number of cases in which the Commonwealth's responsibilities in Indigenous affairs were involved:
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litigation is conducted in accordance with the Legal Service Directions issued by the Attorney-General and is consistent with Commonwealth policy on Indigenous affairs.
To ensure that the department's procurement of legal services represents best value for money, it now engages private legal practitioners, in addition to the Australian Government Solicitor, to conduct cases as appropriate.
Decisions on whether to engage private practitioners are made on a case-by-case basis in accordance with relevant legislation and departmental Chief Executive Instructions.
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litigation in 2001-02 included:
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the Cubillo and Gunner cases, in which the High Court refused applications for special leave to appeal the judgement of the Federal Court, which had dismissed their separated children claims against the Commonwealth
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a damages action arising out of events surrounding the building of a bridge to Hindmarsh Island, South Australia, in which the Federal Court dismissed the claims against the Commonwealth, and others, on 21 August 2001.
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