Tribunal prepared for Territory workload 

The National Native Title Tribunal today said it was ready to boost staff and resources in the Northern Territory to handle any influx of mining and exploration work under federal native title laws following the disallowance of the Territory Government's legislation in the Senate.

NNTT President Graeme Neate said the Tribunal had made contingency plans to deal with the 900 applications currently held by Territory Government -- if the Government decided to use the federal scheme.

Mr Neate said the applications could be handled in a timely and efficient way if the parties were committed to an orderly and co-operative process.

"We will be seeking early talks with the Territory Government to determine whether it wants to exercise the option of working through the federal native title act in light of today's events," he said.

Mr Neate said there were currently 150 active mining and exploration matters nationwide before the Tribunal, contrary to reports of a backlog of 6,000 matters.

There were also 690 native title claims awaiting resolution through litigation or mediation. The Northern Territory Government's legislation did not propose to assume responsibility for resolving native title claims.