The National Native Title Tribunal has introduced new measures to accelerate the resolution of native title applications.
Queensland Regional Director of the NNTT Simon Nish today said the measures involved targeting resources to accelerate the mediation of some of the 206 active applications currently before the Tribunal.
Applications would be assessed according to 11 criteria including their state of readiness for mediation, the level of intra-indigenous conflict, the ability of the applicants to form a body corporate and develop management plans and the attitude of the State Government to the application.
Mr Nish said applications which were sufficiently developed to meet the criteria would be given extra assistance to enter the mediation phase. Other applications would be classified as requiring further preparation before mediation or for quick referral to the Federal Court because of irreconcilable issues.
In the interests of all parties, the Tribunal would continue to encourage the refinement of those applications which were not yet ready for mediation. The progress of the applications would be reviewed every six months for possible inclusion in the priority list, and applicants could appeal the Tribunal's decisions.
Mediation assistance for high priority application could include extra support from case managers and Tribunal members.
Mr Nish said the measures were necessary because of the growth in the number of applications and the need to target Tribunal resources to the greatest effect. He said the measures formalised a practice which had already evolved to some extent as a matter of necessity.
Applicant groups, including native title representative bodies, would be consulted on the implementation of the policy over the next few months and indigenous representative bodies would be invited to nominate native title applications for high priority resolution. |