The President of the National Native Title Tribunal, Justice Robert French, has expressed cautious optimism about the future of native title agreements, following recent Tribunal and Aboriginal Land Council successes in resolving disputes over some overlapping claims in Western Australia.
Justice French told an Alice Springs conference today that multiple, fragmented and overlapping claims had caused serious problems for governments, industry and native title claimants. However, mediation of issues between conflicting interests had produced some encouraging outcomes.
"The recent resolution of some overlaps in the Goldfields region and the commitment by North East claimants to a regional approach to dealing with mining companies are examples," Justice French said.
"And if overlaps and intra-indigenous issues can be addressed, native title agreements can follow. The agreed native title determination at Hopevale last December is a leading example of this."
Justice French told the annual "Doing Business With Aboriginal Communities" conference that Governments were required to negotiate in good faith with registered native claimants in relation to proposed future acts such as mining, mineral exploration and compulsory acquisition of native title rights on land for grant to a third party.
However, he said Governments might be entitled to draw distinctions in their approach between claimants who were individuals pursuing essentially individual interests and those who were negotiating for the benefit and with the authority of a group of native title holders.
Justice French said that he supported proposed Federal Government amendments to the Native Title Act 1993 that would strengthen the status of native title holder groups and discourage individual or small sub-groups from lodging separate claims and thus obtain the right to negotiate without the authority of all relevant native title holders.
He said he also looked forward to changes in the law which would provide a more flexible relationship between the Tribunal and the Federal Court. The changes would allow the Federal Court to decide questions of fact or law which were blocking mediation without necessarily having to go to a full-scale native title hearing.
Justice French said he believed a precedent base for native title agreements had been developed. Proposed procedural changes to the law could make such agreements easier to make in the future. |