Indigenous Coordination Centres facts for kids

Indigenous Coordination Centres, or ICCs, are special offices of the Australian Government. They help connect the government with Indigenous Australians. ICCs work to provide and share important services with Indigenous communities.

As of 2021, there are 30 ICC offices across Australia. Before ICCs, another group called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) handled Indigenous affairs from 1990 to 2005. ATSIC was closed because it didn't meet its main goals, like helping to reduce poverty among Indigenous peoples. After ATSIC closed, ICCs became the main link between Indigenous peoples and the Australian government.

How Indigenous Coordination Centres Started

ICCs are currently managed by the Australian Department of Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. They began as offices under ATSIC. Over time, they changed to work more independently.

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC)

ATSIC was created in 1990. It managed government services and programs for Indigenous Australians. ATSIC also advised the Australian government on issues and policies affecting Indigenous communities. It was run by a national board of Indigenous representatives chosen by voters.

ATSIC's goal was to help Indigenous people have a bigger say in decisions that affected their lives. ICCs were used as administrative offices under ATSIC. This Commission worked for 15 years before it was closed down in 2005.

Even though ATSIC had more Indigenous involvement than other government groups at the time, it was seen as not fully successful. One reason was that ATSIC was watched very closely by the government. This made it slow to manage and deliver Indigenous programs. Also, a government report showed that Indigenous Australians still faced many challenges. These included differences in wealth, health problems, and lower living standards. ATSIC was meant to fix these issues.

ATSIC also faced political criticism. Some in parliament thought it was too expensive for taxpayers. ATSIC was closed to make Indigenous programs simpler. The idea was to give these programs directly to the right government departments. After ATSIC closed, ICCs then helped connect these government departments with Indigenous communities.

New Ways of Working: The New Arrangements

After ATSIC was closed, "The New Arrangements" were put in place. These new plans aimed to help Indigenous peoples improve their living conditions. This approach is called a 'whole-of-government approach.' It set out new ways for Indigenous Australian community leaders to work with different levels of the Australian government.

These new arrangements have three main parts. They include ICCs, Shared Responsibility Agreements (SRAs), and Regional Partnership Agreements (RPAs). These agreements were made to explain the goals and duties of the Australian government. They help the government work with Indigenous communities on Indigenous affairs. The responsibilities of ICCs also grew under these new plans.

Where Indigenous Coordination Centres Are Located

As of January 2022, ICC offices are found in 30 places across Australia. These locations include:

• Adelaide Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Alice Springs Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Bourke Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Brisbane Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Broome Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Cairns Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Cape York Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Ceduna Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Coffs Harbour Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Darwin Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Derby Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Geraldton Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Hobart Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Kalgoorlie Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Katherine Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Kununurra Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Melbourne Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Mount Isa Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Nhulunbuy Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Perth Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Port Augusta Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Queanbeyan Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Rockhampton Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Roma Indigenous Coordination Centre
• South Headland Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Sydney Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Tamworth Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Tennant Creek Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Townsville Indigenous Coordination Centre
• Wagga Wagga Indigenous Coordination Centre

What ICCs Aim to Achieve

ICCs help Indigenous Australians connect with the main government services. They also give Indigenous leaders a way to reach different government groups. Indigenous communities in Australia face challenges like lower health and living standards. They also sometimes lack enough government support or a strong voice in political decisions.

ICCs receive money to help solve these problems. Their main goals are to improve how policies are made and put into action. They also aim to help different government levels and non-government groups work together.

How Policies Are Put into Action

ICCs are seen as a clever and special way to deal with the challenges Indigenous Australians face. ICCs work by helping different government departments coordinate. These departments are responsible for giving services to Indigenous people. Since ICCs also help create SRAs, they have been successful in making these agreements with local communities.

The government has given money for programs to help victims of family violence. They also fund projects to improve buildings and services in Indigenous communities. These programs are managed by ICCs. These centres have also helped solve local problems and increased understanding of Indigenous cultures.

Challenges and Criticisms of ICCs

For ICCs to successfully coordinate Indigenous programs and funding, their officers and managers need certain skills. These skills include being able to speak up for policy changes and negotiate with different government levels. They also need to work well with Indigenous communities. However, ICC staff often do not have enough power or the right skills for these negotiations. They often rely on senior officials, but there aren't always enough of these senior people available.

A big criticism of ICCs is that they can be slow and have too much bureaucracy. This means that putting policies into action can take a long time. This slowness has been criticized for wasting resources. These resources could have gone directly to helping Indigenous communities. Because of this bureaucracy, there can also be a gap between the real lives of Indigenous Australians and the policies made for them.

Communication between ICCs and the central government can also be difficult. This means that policies made by the far-away government sometimes don't fully address Indigenous issues. It is also hard to know who is responsible for what. This is because the plans for how government groups and ICCs work together are sometimes unclear. ICC managers often have to negotiate with many different government levels. This can lead to confusion about how to put policies into action and changing goals.

ICCs often struggle to meet their goals because they don't have enough money. Funds often come with strict rules and conditions that Indigenous communities find hard to meet. Funding for programs was supposed to be simpler under ICCs, but this hasn't happened. This is because it's complicated to work with different government departments and get approval for programs. It's also hard to coordinate within each Indigenous community. Each government department needs its own report, made in its own way. This makes the process more complex and time-consuming. Programs that do get enough money often don't last long. Funding contracts are often only for one year, meaning more effort is needed to get funding again.

The Australian government has also been criticized for being too controlling in its relationship with Indigenous Australians. Because ICCs handle administration, programs are not always led by Indigenous people. This can reduce the independence and self-determination of Indigenous Australians. Also, when state governments are given the job of providing Indigenous services instead of the federal government, their involvement in remote areas can be limited. This means Indigenous programs in more distant areas might not get as much attention as those in bigger cities. Some people think remote Indigenous areas are too hard to govern. They are seen as too culturally and geographically far from mainstream government.