The ruling by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal defending the Aboriginality of 130 Tasmanians could spark a boycott of the upcoming Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Commission (ATSIC) elections by members of the Tasmanian Aboriginal Center (TAC). The TAC is upset with the ruling, which overturned the decision of the Indigenous Advisory Committee to reject 130 Tasmanian's bid for Aboriginality. More than 130 Tasmanians filed an appeal to the Tribunal and all but one ruling was in their favor. The debate on the Aboriginality of the claimants has postponed the ATSIC elections till November, a full month after the rest of Australi. The ATSIC roll was created after the elections of 1999 in response to claims that non-Aboriginals were voting and running in the elections. Because only under a thousand Tasmanians vote in the elections a boycott could have a large effect on the outcome. At stake in the ATSIC elections are the positions of 12 regional councilors and control of the distribution of Aboriginal funding.
