CANBERRA, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has accepted a role as the government's special envoy on indigenous affairs, local media reported Wednesday.
Abbott was offered the position by new Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday after he was not offered a ministerial portfolio.
In a letter to the prime minister, Abbott accepted the role but made recommendations on what his priorities should be.
"What I expect to be asked to do is to make recommendations on how we can improve remote area education," Abbott told News Corp Australia on Wednesday.
"In particular, how we can improve attendance rates and school performance because this is the absolute key to a better future for Indigenous kids and this is the key to reconciliation."
Abbott will join former deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce as special envoys with Joyce taking up a role as an envoy on the drought.
Earlier in the week, Abbott said he would "love" to do the job but did not want to "trip over the toes" of Minister for Indigenous Affairs Nigel Scullion.
The appointment has been met with disapproval from indigenous leaders who say Abbott failed on the issue during his time as prime minister.
"Many of us don't have any confidence in Tony Abbott's return to save us," Jackie Huggins, co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First People, told Fairfax Media on Monday.
"I haven't spoken to an Aboriginal leader that is supportive.
"We reflect on his history of supporting harmful and paternalistic policies relating to our people.
"One of his accomplishments has been to rob our people of a right to self-determination. And not listening to us - but listening to the selected few."
