The national Indigenous elected body, the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, will need to “meet a range of strict conditions in the future before it can apply for federal funding” again, according to the group’s administrators, Cor Cordis.
The Congress represents 180 organisations and 10,000 individual members across Australia. It went into voluntary administration last week, faced with having to cease operating on 30 June, when its existing funding agreement with the federal government expires.
“In the past, the congress has relied almost solely on funding from the federal government for key programs to benefit and advance issues impacting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders,” Cor Cordis’s Alan Walker said.
“We will be working closely with the minister’s office over the next few weeks to see if we can restructure Congress so that it is in a better position to apply for funding,” he said.
The details of those conditions have not been made public, but an initial meeting with the federal minister for Indigenous Australians, Ken Wyatt, was “really positive”, according to Walker’s statement.
“We are confident of meeting those conditions outlined by the minister and gave the undertaking to work closely together to secure the congress’s future,” he said.
Walker said it was too early to say what the future level of funding may be. Congress would have to demonstrate it was operating “within a viable structure”.
Labor has written to Ken Wyatt asking him to urgently restore adequate and secure funding for Congress.
“For years, National Congress enjoyed bipartisan support – until Tony Abbott cut its funding,” according to a joint statement by Labor’s Linda Burney, Pat Dodson and Warren Snowdon, who are all members of the ALP’s First Nations caucus.
“We have also asked the government to guarantee that National Congress is provided with no-strings funding, so it is free to advocate on behalf of First Nations Australians.”
“If the government is serious about a bipartisan approach to First Nations affairs, genuine reconciliation and a co-design process for a voice to parliament, National Congress will not be allowed to go under.
“It is too important to lose,” the statement said.
