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Queensland Land Tribunal Chairman Graeme Neate was today sworn in as the new President of the National Native Title Tribunal in a brief ceremony in Perth.
Mr Neate, who has an extensive background in Aboriginal, constitutional and environmental law issues, succeeds Justice Robert French who has resumed full time duties as a Federal Court judge.
A part time Member of the Tribunal since 1995, Mr Neate's appointment was made possible following amendments to the Native Title Act in 1998 which allowed lawyers other than members of the judiciary, or retired Judges, to head the Tribunal.
Speaking after his swearing in by Justice French, Mr Neate said he intended to build on the achievements of his predecessor who guided the Tribunal and the native title process through a period of highly charged public and political debate.
"I plan to pursue the Tribunal's primary aim of assisting parties to native title applications to reach voluntary agreements as an alternative to costly, time consuming and adversarial litigation," he said.
"The nation simply cannot afford the social and economic cost of legal action to settle most of the 700 active native title applications in Australia."
Mr Neate said the Native Title Act amendments meant there had been a fundamental change in the roles of the Tribunal and the Federal Court in the resolution of native title issues.
"I hope to develop a close, co-operative relationship between the Tribunal and the Court as we perform our separate but related functions," he said.
Mr Neate said he also planned to work closely with State and Territory governments as they established their own native title regimes to take over part of the Tribunal's functions, or, as in the case of Western Australia, all of the Tribunal's role.
"The immediate task of the Federal Tribunal is to apply the registration test in the amended Native Title Act to more than 600 applications throughout Australia. This will determine which applicants will have a say over proposed mining, exploration or other developments while their application is pending," he said.
"The practical results of the registration test are becoming evident as many groups combine their applications. Some combined applications have already passed the test. This means that there are fewer overlaps, and parties to negotiation can be confident that they are dealing with applicants who have withstood the scrutiny of the test."
"We have entered the next stage of native title developments. There are new legislative tools to settle applications by agreement, and there is increasing resolve on the part of applicants and other parties to negotiate practical outcomes," Mr Neate said.
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