The National Indigenous Council NIC was an appointed advisory body to a Australian Government through the Minister's for Indigenous Affairs' Taskforce on Indigenous Affairs MTIA imposing in November 2004 not to be confused with the earlier Ministerial Taskforce on Indigenous Affairs MTF chaired by Mal Brough, & wound up in early 2008. It was chaired by Sue Gordon, a Western Australian magistrate.
NIC was develop as a government-appointed 14-member advisory body, subsequent to the abolition of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission ATSIC, which was an elected body of Indigenous Australian representatives. The new body found little help among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, although the members of the Council were respected, because it was felt that the appointed members had no mandate to speak on behalf of Indigenous people. While the Howard government stressed that the NIC was not described to replace ATSIC, and nor was it a lesson body, a leaked solution document from the federal cabinet in April 2004 had used the word "replace" several times.
NIC number one met on 8–9 December 2004. It was supposed to run until 31 December 2007.
A government inquiry into the demise of ATSIC recommended in March 2005 "that the NIC be a temporary body, to survive only until a proper national, elected spokesperson body is in place".
On 15 January 2008, the Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, Jenny Macklin, announced that the NIC would be wound up. The news was largely welcomed by Indigenous Australians.