The day that ATSIC wound up was a personally a sad day because I was actually with three of the young men who found themselves in a position at the end of the day when they had their phones turned off, no one made arrangements for them to travel home that night and I just thought it's typical of a lot of services and a lot of programs that are implemented for Aboriginal people.

No sooner are they set up, they don't actually have time to become effective. And what the government, this is how I personally feel, that the government has a very short implementation phase and it's too short sometimes for an organisation or a program to be effective.

My name is Klynton Wanganeen. I'm a Narrunga man from Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. As a former ATSIC commissioner for South Australia, I have been actively involved in policy setting and decision making at the state and national level. That is one of the first things that are gone. We have been replaced by advisors who will give advice to governments. Advice is just that - you can either take it, or leave it. And more often than not it will be left.

With the demise of ATSIC we will no longer have the ability to tell the true story about what happens in Australia at an international level. ATSIC as a non-government organisation with that status at the United Nations regularly put in presentations to the CERD committee and the United Nations about the status of Aboriginal Affairs in this country.

ATSIC also provided funding for test cases at the highest level in the court system; if there was say the Stolen Generation, ATSIC provided funding for test cases for that, with legal services. ATSIC provided funds for test cases. And my fear is that with Native Title the choice of Native Title groups to litigate or enter into agreements will be taken away.

Hello, my name's Harry Miller. I consider myself a man from Port Lincoln - born and bred in Port Lincoln. My father is from the Wirangu tribe which is on the west coast and my mother is from Narrunga which is on the Yorke Peninsula, so I have two tribes that I follow. I'm going to speak a bit about ATSIC as a past chairman for the last for six years with ATSIC.

I believe one of the biggest injustices with the demise of ATSIC is not allowing the people to have a medium between public service deliveries and the government development of policies that will affect Indigenous people. I still feel that the agenda that ATSIC was driving in terms of the rights for Aboriginal people never got through the right channels. I still believe there needs to be Aboriginal people pursuing the rights agenda so some form of treaty can be developed.