Australia axes top aboriginal body

[dArKeR]

Canberra - Australia's top aboriginal body was abolished on Thursday by Prime Minister John Howard who said the experiment in an elected black organisation to administer aboriginal affairs had failed.

Howard said the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC), created in 1990, had become preoccupied with "symbolic issues and (there was) too little concern with delivering real outcomes for indigenous people".

Howard's conservative government has been a long-standing critic of ATSIC and its campaign for land rights and an apology for past injustices to the 400,000 Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders, who make up about two percent of the population.

Aborigines remain the nation's most disadvantaged group, dying 20 years younger than other Australians and suffering far higher rates of unemployment and alcohol and drug abuse.

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