Tribunal moves to reassure leaseholders 

07/06/2000

The National Native Title Tribunal has moved to reassure Goldfields residents who were advised their leases may be affected by the Widji native title application.

State Manager Andrew Jaggers said people with residential, commercial or community purpose leases in the Goldfields would not be affected by the application.

Mr Jaggers said a suggestion by Independent MLC Mark Nevill that local properties were under threat because of a failure of the Tribunal to apply the law was without foundation.

"The Tribunal applies the law without fear or favour and does not register any native title application which seeks to make a claim over exclusive possession tenures."

Mr Jaggers said the Tribunal obtained names and addresses from the State Government to notify any interest holders who might be affected by the application so they could seek further information and advice.

"The tenure information obtained from the State Government for the Widji application did not identify or exclude residential, commercial or community purpose leaseholders, so the Tribunal took a cautious approach and notified everyone."

"Since then, with the co-operation of the State Government, there is greater precision in identifying specific lease types and we will not be notifying these people in the future."

Mr Jaggers said the Tribunal would write to leaseholders clarifying the situation about the Widji application.

Further information was available by contacting the NNTT on free call 1800 640 501.



Darren Foster
08 9268 7315
0417 418 474