If I remember rightly, Brian, many ATSIC/ATSIS staff who were extremely knowledgeable and capable in their field of expertise were axed or offered transfers which were unfeasible for them to accept or not an appropriate match with their background. I'm thinking in particular of a certain housing program manager with more than 10 years experience in his area. I don't know how the government managed to justify such a massive loss of corporate knowledge in Indigenous affairs. I thought we were all meant to be into 'capacity-building' these days.

I think Gibbons & co were in part driven by some idea that they were purging Indigenous affairs of 'pinkos' and ALP sympathisers, so that they could replace them with 'neutral' economic managers.

There is a whole other story (or indeed stories) about the dissolution of ATSIC that most people don't know. It's a gross exaggeration to suggest that everyone who was working there was either lazy, incompetent or a pinko.