A/HRC/36/46/Add.2 and Torres Strait Islander programmes and required competitive tender bids for organizations providing services to indigenous communities. The Strategy centralized programmes to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and its implementation has been bureaucratic and rigid and has wasted considerable resources on administration. As the Special Rapporteur travelled across the country, she was told repeatedly about the dire consequences of the Strategy. 38. The Strategy has effectively undermined the key role played by indigenous organizations in providing services for their communities. Around 55 per cent of the initial tenders were awarded to non-indigenous organizations, which shifted implementation to mainstream organizations that were neither run by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders nor based in their communities. Many indigenous organizations were forced to close or drastically downsize and reduce the basic services they had been providing to their communities in the areas of health, housing and legal services. Non-indigenous organizations that fly in and fly out of communities have executed projects in culturally inappropriate ways and further undermined capacity-building in local indigenous-led organizations. 39. The Special Rapporteur observes that the Strategy has had a devastating impact on indigenous organizations and has dented their trust in the Government. It runs contrary to the principles of self-determination and participation and the publicly expressed commitment of the Government to doing things with rather than to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 40. However, the Special Rapporteur notes as positive the statement made by the Minister for Indigenous Affairs during their meeting, in which he recognized the importance of making indigenous-led organizations responsible for implementing local programmes and stating that the ambition of the Government was to transfer such responsibility fully to indigenous organizations. 41. Notwithstanding, the Special Rapporteur finds it disconcerting that numerous representatives of indigenous organizations informed her of reprisals levied against them in the form of their exclusion from consultations on key policies and legislative proposals. Furthermore, she is deeply troubled by information indicating that funding cuts have specifically targeted organizations undertaking advocacy and legal services and that provisions inserted in funding agreements restrict the freedom of expression. She notes that the Special Rapporteur on human rights defenders raised the similar concerns during his country visit to Australia in October 2016.15 F. National Congress defunding 42. Since 2014, the explicit defunding by the Government of the national representative body for indigenous peoples, the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, runs counter to the stated commitment of the Government to working with indigenous peoples. The establishment of the Congress in 2010 followed extensive consultations among indigenous peoples and is in accordance with article 18 of the Declaration, which states that indigenous peoples have the right “to participate in decision-making in matters which affect their rights, through representatives chosen by themselves in accordance with their own procedures, as well as to maintain and develop their own indigenous decision making institutions”. The Declaration also affirms in its article 39 that indigenous peoples have the right “to have access to financial … assistance from States … for the enjoyment of the rights contained in this Declaration”. 43. In 2013, in a parallel move, the Government established the Indigenous Advisory Council, which reports directly to the Prime Minister. While the Council is composed of indigenous experts in specific areas, it is not representative of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as its members are appointed by the Prime Minister. 15 8 See www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=20689&LangID=E.