The federal government has allocated $14.6 million to the Referendum Committee in the 2016 Budget to conduct community consultations on constitutional recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
An additional $5 million of funding was allocated to Reconciliation Australia for the Recognise campaign to sway the public into voting in favour of amending the Australian constitution to include Indigenous people in a referendum.
The government has also earmarked $160 million in the Contingency Reserve for the referendum, despite Indigenous leaders involved in the Recognise campaign saying that a referendum would fail if held within the next year.
Indigenous Business Australia (IBA), the organisation with a mandate to create economic independence for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders through home ownership and investment in small business, was a big loser in this year's Budget.
IBA have had $23.1 million taken off them and redirected to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet for Indigenous entrepreneurial initiatives. It's another blow for the IBA after their former finance systems manager, Nicholas Schofield, stole $1.4 million from the organisation and was sentenced to at least three years jail this week.
The federal government has given the Indigenous Land Corporation (ILC) $65 million to pay off debts incurred after they controversially purchased the Ayers Rock Resort at Uluru for $300 million. The corporation has been under crippling debts since the purchase. Indigenous affairs minister Nigel Scullion said the resort had been a good source of employment for Indigenous people and the money would help the ILC become stable.
The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra will receive $10 million a year over a four-year period to ensure Indigenous artefacts are preserved and kept safe.
