The ACT's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body says claims it has become irrelevant and fails to meet the needs of the ACT's First Nations people are unfair.
The body will prioritise reconnecting with the territory's Indigenous community this term, but says it remains best placed to be the community's "voice and advocate", the chair says.
Maurice Walker said the newly elected members of the body were surprised by criticism levelled at the them by Paul Girrawah House, a Ngambri-Ngunnawal custodian running for the Legislative Assembly under the First Nation Party banner.
Mr House earlier this month said the Elected Body was an irrelevance to First Nations people in the territory and should be abolished.
Mr Walker, the newly elected chair, said Mr House had made a number of "unfair claims regarding the functioning of the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body".
The chair said the body was focused on reconnecting with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community in the ACT.
"The Elected Body does acknowledge that there have been challenges along the way, but we are not a political party. We are voted democratically exclusively by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community, meaning that we are best placed to be the voice and advocate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people on the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues within our community," Mr Walker said.
The Elected Body on Monday issued a statement in response to Mr House's call for the Elected Body to be abolished.
Mr House said earlier this month the Elected Body was "an anachronism of past misunderstandings and deliberate confusion" that had "indeed become irrelevant and should be scrapped".
"It fails because many of the Aboriginal people of the ACT do not see the elected body as genuinely representing their interests or as a voice for their needs and aspirations," he said.
Ngarra Group, led by Dhunghutti and Biripi man Craig Ritchie, has been appointed to lead the first part of the review of the elected body, which was first established in 2008.
The members of the Elected Body on Monday welcomed the review and said it would continue its work in the meantime to hold the government accountable, including through public hearings.
The body pointed to its recommendations prompting an increased focus across in the ACT government on priority action areas from the National Agreement on Closing the Gap as an example of its achievements.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said the review would consider how a contemporary elected body should function and whether the existing system delivered on the needs, priorities and aspirations of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
"We will continue to raise concerns about government's failure to deliver against the national agreement and the ACT agreement," Mr Walker said.
Turnout fell from 267 formal votes in 2021 to 198 formal votes this year, despite the government's hopes it would increase in light of the attention on the body during the Voice to Parliament referendum in 2023.
Mr Walker said this reflected a nationwide trend and events which normally attracted voters were held outside the voting period.
"Since the failed 2023 referendum to establish an Indigenous Voice to Parliament, we have seen lower turn out and participation from First Nations people across Australia. A recent example of this was that less than 10 per cent of eligible people voted for the South Australian 'Voice'," he said.
"It will be a priority of the Elected Body in this term to reconnect with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community and the Aboriginal community controlled organisations. We want to bring the community and Elected Body together."
