Aboriginality inquiry looms
19.12.2000
A NATIONAL inquiry into fraudulent claimants of Aboriginal benefits loomed yesterday with ATSIC backing its deputy chairman Ray Robinson's call to stop payments to non-indigenous people.
Mr Robinson said South Sea Island people were claiming Aboriginality, and being paid millions of dollars a year in housing and business grants, subsidised education, and employment benefits.
A spokesman for ATSIC chairman Geoff Clarke said the comments by Commissioner Robinson represented ATSIC's position.
On Friday, Federal Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Herron ordered an urgent assessment of the allegations and said he would consult ATSIC on further action.
Further demands for an inquiry came from experienced Aboriginal corporation administrator, Garry Hamilton of Minter Ellison, who said the incidence of non-eligible people claiming Aboriginality to secure financial benefits was ``rampant''.
Mr Hamilton said he was appointed several years ago as administrator at Dalaipi Aboriginal Corporation in Caboolture.
``The former administrator of this organisation just let anybody in,'' he said.
``There were an incredible number of white Australians with no Aboriginal connections at all getting benefits. It was so bad I just had to close the place down,'' Mr Hamilton said.
``In 1998 and 1999 the Government appointed me administrator at Gurang Land Council in Bundaberg where a major task was to investigate the Aboriginality of some members of the extended Appo family who were wanting to join and be part of a native title claim.
``I had cause to investigate right back to 1860 the family history of some members of the Appo family and found they had no Aboriginality in their background. I had a meeting with the traditional elders and not one accepted these Appo family members as Aboriginal.
``I wrote to Mr Leo Appo informing him of the decision and set all the information out as to why they were unsuccessful.''
It has been alleged that more than 100 members of the Appo family in Bundaberg and Hervey Bay have claimed Aboriginal subsidies on education, housing and business loans worth millions of dollars over the past 30 years.
There are members of the Appo family who have married into Aboriginal families in Bundaberg, Hervey Bay and Nambour, and so qualify for benefits.
The head of the Indigenous studies unit at Griffith University, Boni Robinson said yesterday there needed to be a clearer way to define legitimate claimants.
``At the moment there are three criteria to fill to establish Aboriginality,'' Mrs Robinson said.
``You have to be able to prove cultural Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander lineage; you have to provide confirmation, endorsed by your community and organisation that recognises you as ATSI; and you have to identify as an Aboriginal or Islander person.''
