Smooth transition to Commonwealth's right to negotiate scheme is assured says Tribunal President
| 28/11/2002 |
With the announcement today by Queensland Premier Peter Beattie that the Government will legislate early next year to adopt the Commonwealth's right to negotiate process in 2003, the National Native Title Tribunal is gearing up to take on the extra workload.
'The Tribunal is working closely with the Queensland Government to ensure a smooth transition from the current State scheme to the Commonwealth's scheme,' said Tribunal President Graeme Neate.
'We have been planning for the possibility of this policy change for some months.' Under the Commonwealth Native Title Act, there are provisions for negotiating agreements about exploration and mining (including Indigenous Land Use Agreements). Where parties cannot agree, the Tribunal can act as umpire to arbitrate within statutory time frames.
For the last two years, Queensland has been using its own alternative state provisions for handling applications for mineral exploration and mining on land where native title may exist. Those provisions have been subject to legal challenge but were upheld in a full Federal Court decision yesterday.
The Tribunal understands there is currently a substantial backlog of applications for mining exploration permits in Queensland.
'With this much work in the pipeline, we anticipate a substantial increase in our workload,' Mr Neate said. 'But with the lead time we have been given of July 1, 2003, we will have time to put in place enough people and resources to make sure the work gets done. Fortunately we can draw upon the Tribunal's considerable national expertise and experience in this area.' Mr Neate said the Tribunal was faced with a similar workload when the Commonwealth scheme was activated in the Northern Territory two years ago and has demonstrated its capacity to meet that challenge. |
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