National Indigenous Council member Wesley Aird said the federal Government had developed no plan to change the economic fortunes of indigenous Australians since it disbanded ATSIC.

"Two years since the so-called new arrangements, we are not seeing any great changes on the ground," he said. "Economic development isn't happening fast enough."

The Government broke up the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission to introduce a process of "mainstreaming" Aboriginal programs into traditional policy departments.

The focus shifted from handouts to helping Aboriginal communities prosper by encouraging home ownership, private business ventures and working for the dole.

NIC chair Sue Gordon said the council wanted Canberra to make economic development its top priority. "The National Indigenous Council gave further consideration to the Government's 20- to 30-year vision and priorities for indigenous Australians, and decided that, given the current economic climate - and of course the Prime Minister's words that 'there is a need to dismantle the barriers that inhibit indigenous Australians from sharing in the bounty this great country has to offer' - that economic development should be given more emphasis," Ms Gordon said.

"This is not to detract from our main emphasis of law and order and associated issues."

Another NIC member, Indigenous Business Australia chairman Joseph Elu, said business and the Government had paid only "lip service" to the inclusion of Aborigines as workers and partners. "There's all sorts of things like 'We will endeavour to employ indigenous people in the mining sector, blah, blah', but there's no actual targets," he said.

Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough denied there was any difference in the priorities of Canberra and the NIC. "I agree with the NIC that economic development is fundamentally important -- that is why the Australian Government is investing in home ownership initiatives, employment programs and business development services," he said.

"However, without law and order, without basic safety, you cannot achieve decent economic outcomes, decent education results or improve health circumstances.

"Beyond law and order, which undermines a working society, the Government is committed to opening up communities to the market economy for the first time."

Mr Aird said the Government put too much effort into a small number of communities in crisis. "We are sick of hearing about communities like Wadeye," he said. "I would wonder if I was in the community next door: 'If I threw a few more bricks through a few more windows, does that mean I get looked after?' Talk about rewarding the crooks.

"I would suggest, community by community, you do an assessment of both their assets and their aspirations.

"You would look at their capacity and then you would see where you want to get to, and what the problems are to achieving some sort of economic independence."

Mr Elu said: "We need to have an audit about how much of the actual resources money is going back into those communities, and how much money is spent by those companies on the indigenous communities."