The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) has been officially abolished.

The Governor-General proclaimed the bill to abolish the Indigenous body at Executive Council this week.

The Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Amanda Vanstone, says ATSIC ceased to exist as of midnight last night and Australia has embarked on a new and historic era of Indigenous affairs.

But Senator Vanstone says she sympathises with people who were committed to making ATSIC work.

"ATSIC has now finally closed," she said. "That's the end of that story.

"I feel a bit sorry for the people who had hopes and dreams for it and hoped it would turn out and tried to make it turn out. The facts are it simply didn't deliver."