Indigenous community organisations, including CDEP schemes, are already delivering a substantial proportion of this country’s welfare and social support workload, covering for inadequate welfare support and servicing in many communities throughout the country (see the contributions to Part IV, this volume). Inadequate resourcing leads to the commonly heard criticism that these community organisations display an inability to deliver. All levels of government, as well as the private sector, should acknowledge their social obligation to deliver social support mechanisms, particularly by way of increased employment for our peoples.

Reforms to income support and service delivery will not work unless the underlying causes of difficulty are addressed. The cultural and locational diversity of our peoples coupled with the effects of racism call for different sets of service delivery structures. The diversity of the Indigenous Australian community must be adequately reflected at all levels of the participation support structures, with our people employed in all types of positions at Centrelink, the Job Network and other support agencies and private providers.

Government agencies must model an understanding of diversity and commitment to tackling racism, not only in their recruitment strategies but also in all their policy and program delivery. All agencies at all levels of government have Indigenous clients. It is time these service delivery agencies considered ATSIC as the last resort for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and not as the first provider. Current practice results in the ATSIC budget being used for safety net issues, rather than as a base for true empowerment and economic development.

Governments are making an effort to move away from the concept of ‘one size fits all’ solutions in relation to mainstream policy. They need also to move away from it in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander policy.