Land Rights Australia

Extinguishment Of Native Title And Ongoing Attacks on Aboriginal Land Rights

Jun 15, 2006

Persistant mining and pastoral lobby groups have eroded native title legislation, until Land Rights have become window dressing. But nothing can cover this mess.

Many individuals in the mining and pastoral industries have learned to respect Aboriginal land rights and the need for protocol and negotiation with traditional owners holding native title.

However, the massive and sustained opposition of industry lobby groups and conservative politicians to Aboriginal land rights eclipses these small-scale individual efforts, effectively ensuring the ongoing dispossession of Aboriginal people, the extinguishment of native title and the buttressing of colonialism in Australia.

These opposition groups refuse to accept that Aboriginal people have a right to sovereignty and native title, and are outraged at any suggestion that they might need to gain Aboriginal approval for, and negotiate, exploration and mining on Aboriginal land. Such community, government and industry outrage has resulted in the Land Rights Act being reviewed three times, forcing Aboriginal people and Land Councils to spend all their time and resources defending their land rights instead of performing the stewardship roles that the devastated country desperately needs.

These reviews blatantly disregard the fact that every independent inquiry into land rights in Australia has strongly endorsed the Woodward Commission's finding on the importance of Aboriginal landowners' control over mining. The 1987 review weakened Aboriginal control considerably.

For example, a strict time constraint was placed on Aboriginal landowners in deciding whether or not to approve mining exploration or activity. If the proposal is not specifically rejected within that time, the landowners are deemed to have consented to it. As well, if landowners agree to an exploration proposal, they are also deemed to have agreed to any subsequent mining activity.

You can imagine all the loopholes and double-crosses created here through one-sided communication with Indigenous groups speaking English as a second language. (I have seen this first hand, and it is an ugly thing to watch.)

In the 1989 review on pastoral leases, the government refused to make provision for small living areas to be excised from pastoral leases. This has resulted in the horrific conditions now experienced in Indigenous communities, and especially in the "camps" which are now gleefully displayed by opposition groups and the media as examples of "Aboriginal culture" (and reason for further extinguishment of Aboriginal rights and sovereignty.)

But this was just the beginning. More on the ongoing "bucketloads of extinguishment", as promised by Treasurer Costello, in future articles.

The copyright of the article Land Rights Australia in Australian Indigenous Peoples is owned by Tyson Yunkaporta. Permission to republish Land Rights Australia in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.