23.09.2020
The history of the Commonwealth’s Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (ALRA) and policy of the past twenty years which has hindered social justice
“The Commonwealth’s Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (ALRA) is a statutory instrument designed to deliver a form of social justice – that is, to arrest and even reverse the illegal land dispossession that occurred in Australia since British colonisation.” …
“… in the last two decades the steps have been backward. Those living on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory are not only the most impoverished people in Australia, but also they are becoming relatively poorer. This trend is the result of policy to discourage and even financially penalise those who live on their country. The most recent … survey indicated that there are over 600 homelands in the Northern Territory. People may have land rights, but because the Commonwealth and Northern Territory governments fail to support living at outstations, people are leaving their ancestral lands. To pressure Aboriginal people for whom connection to country, sacred sites and ancestors in the landscape are paramount values to live in the same way as non-Aboriginal people is a form of cultural genocide.
Jon Altman, SELF-DETERMINATION’S LAND RIGHTS Destined to disappoint?, (September, 2020)
Click here to read the full article
23 Sept 2020
The 2007 Northern Territory Intervention: Cultural Genocide and Ecocide?
These assimilation policies destroy our culture and our lives. It is the Stolen Generation all over again. … The government is refusing to build us any housing unless we sign over control of our land for 40 years or more. We say NO LEASES. We will not sign. … The government having this control is no good. Our lives depend on our land. It is connected to our songlines, our culture and our dreaming. Prescribed Area Peoples’ Alliance from First Nations communities affected by the NT Intervention, Mparntwe /Alice Springs, (September & November 2008).
…
Returning to the crucial issue of land, given that the 2006 [Aboriginal Land Rights Act] ALRA reforms were promoted to open up Aboriginal land to mineral exploration and development, the Intervention’s compulsory acquisition of townships has created a dangerous precedent for other Aboriginal lands. In late 2007, the Howard Government signed up to the US-led Global Nuclear Energy Partnership initiative (GNEP), which committed Australia to mine and enrich its uranium, export it to other countries, then re-import the resultant radioactive waste to be stored for ever more in the Australian desert. Approximately 30% of the world’s currently identified uranium reserves are to be found on NT indigenous lands and since last year the number of exploration licences for uranium in the NT has doubled, with nearly 80 companies either actively exploring or having applied to explore … click here to read more
Martin Cook, Damien Short, Political Economy of Genocide in Australia: The architecture of Dispossession Then and Now, in Bachman, J. (ed.) Cultural Genocide: Law, Politics, and Global Manifestations. New York: Routledge. 2019.
19 April 2020
Gove Peninsula Native Title: Help Save the Yolngu way of life
The Yolngu people of North East Arnhem Land are one of the last Indigenous groups still living within their traditional framework of law and governance. Although the Yolngu won rights to their land and way of life in 1976 through the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, these rights have been overridden and are increasingly denied due to Australian government agency error, mismanagement and arbitrary rule.
With regard to the Gove Peninsula there has never been a court determination of any kind settling who the traditional owners are and how they give consent. Consequently, most traditional land owning and caretaker groups of the Gove Peninsula are currently excluded from decision making, which remains the greatest source of injustice and has adverse consequences threatening the Yolngu way of life.
The Yolngu people are seeking to correct this through a native title process.
For more information / to donate click on Gove Peninsula Native Title: Help Save the Yolngu way of life
January 2018
Boiling Point: The NT’s Fracking Dilemma
Under intense pressure from Canberra to lift its ban on the controversial process of gas fracking, the Northern Territory is grappling with whether the economic benefits justify the environmental risks.
Boiling Point: The NT’s fracking dilemma, ABC News on 26/01/2018
Watch this video on YouTube
Custodianship in the 21st Century
Jeff McMullen with Jimmy Wavehill, just prior to delivering the 15th annual Vincent Lingiari Lecture at Charles Darwin University.
Jeff McMullen AM, presented the 15th Vincent Lingiari Memorial Lecture at Charles Darwin University, August 6th 2015.
Custodianship is one of the foundational concepts of the intellectual knowledge system of all of the First Peoples of this land. As a senior lawman, Vincent Lingiari was drawing on his grandfather’s connection to Gurindji country, reclaiming and asserting this core responsibility.
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Can we forge a treaty or treaties, recognizing the truth of the past and legally supporting a fair and just future? Can we rise above our doubts and flaws and in the 21st Century find the full expression of custodianship that Vincent Lingiari cherished?
Vincent Lingiari knew who he was and that this land held him close to its heart. “You can keep your gold. We just want our land back.”
Please click here to read the full lecture
Interviews with Jeff McMullen: CAAMA, ABC and 104.1 Territory FM
Articles:
Tony Abbott and White Australia: Lets’s be serious about change
‘First Nations Telegraph’ article (includes iconic pictures)
Land Rights News – Northern Edition
Meet the NLC’s new Full Council (18 Dec 2019)
Apr 2019
Dec 2018
Aug 2018
May 2018
Feb 2018
Oct 2017
Jul 2017
Apr 2017
Jan 2017
Oct 2016
Jul 2016
Apr 2016
Jan 2016
Please click here for general information about the Land Rights News
A Discussion on 99-Year Township Leases
Featuring: Yirrininba Dhurrkay and James Wapiriny
Introduction: David Suttle
The plan to undermine the Land Rights Act
by Ian Viner AO QC
With the Commonwealth Government’s push for 99-year leases, the Forrest Report call for Aboriginal land to be privatised so as to be bought and sold, and attacks upon the Northern Land Council in particular over their defence of traditional ownership and their responsibilities under the Land Rights Act, the iconic 1976 Land Rights Act is under threat like never before.
Please click here to read the full article
The Disallowance by the Senate of Regulations made under s28A
of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976
Media Release Northern Land Council
Media Release Northern and Central Land Councils
Official Notification of the Senate
Changes to the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT) 1976
Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Amendment (Delegation) Regulation 2013 – F2013L02122
The new Regulation was registered on 12 December 2013. This was the last sitting day of Parliament for the year and means the changes will not come before Parliament before February 11, at the very earliest.
All information can be found at: www.comlaw.gov.au/Details/F2013L02122
The legislative instrument allows for Aboriginal Corporations to request that certain functions of the Land Councils be delegated to them. Where there is reluctance on the part of the Land Councils, the Minister is the final arbiter.
from: Explanation from the Regulation:
Subsection 28(3) of the Act provides that a Land Council may delegate certain functions and powers to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation.
Subsection 28A(1) of the Act provides that an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation may apply to a Land Council for a delegation of certain Land Council functions or powers.
Subsection 28A(5) of the Act provides that a Land Council is taken to have refused to make a delegation if it has neither made nor refused to make the delegation within the period worked out in accordance with the regulations (or such longer period as is agreed by the Minister).
Subsection 28B(4) of the Act provides that an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporation may apply to a Land Council for a variation of an existing delegation to apply to all of the Land Council’s functions or powers that are delegable to the corporation, or to add specified delegable functions or power, or to add specified delegable functions or powers in relation to specified matters.
The Hon. Alastair Nicholson AO RFD QC
answers Questions on 99-Year Leases
from Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM and Rev. Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM
1. Government is asking some communities to agree to 99-year township leases. What are the implications of signing a 99-year lease?
2. Government states that the community will still own the land even though a 99-year lease has been signed. Can you explain this please.
3. How important to Aboriginal Peoples are the protections in the Land Rights Act?
4. Under current legislation we are able to support housing and business development in our towns. Why do you think Government is asking communities to agree to 99-year leases?
5. Our people have great difficulty in persuading Government to negotiate with us in a culturally appropriate manner – that is, talking with the senior law men of our communities. Can you suggest ways in which this can be achieved?
Dismantling the Land Rights Act
99 Year leases
6 Nov 2013
Statement by Rev. Dr Djiniyini Gondarra OAM regarding MOUs on township 99 year leases
I express my deep concern at the actions of the Abbott Government as evidenced by the behaviour of the Minister for Indigenous Affairs, Senator Scullion, in hastily procuring MOUs on township leases for 99 years in Gunbalanya and Yirrkala in recent weeks. He is quoted as saying that this was part of a blitz to encourage other communities around the country to sign similar deals.
Please click here for the full statement
Article in the The Australian: Overhaul township leasing system, says Northern Land Council (18 Nov 2013)
Letter from Rev. Dr Djiniyini Gondarra to The Australian (22 Nov 2013)
Response from The Australian (23 Nov 2013)
22 Nov 2013
Interview with Dr Gondarra
NT First Nations leader calls for rejection of lease deals
27 Nov 2013
Rosalie Kunoth-Monks OAM in Conversation
with
Malcolm Fraser AC CH GCL PC,
Frank Vincent AO QC and
Hon. Alastair Nicholson RFD AO QC (by Video)
at Victoria University facilitated by Jeff McMullen
NITV News:
Mr Fraser is among a growing number of opponents to the plan [to take 99-year leases on communities] who say there has been little community consultation to date.
“If the government is wanting 99-year leases, it goes a long way to making sure Aboriginals can no longer control their own land” Mr Fraser said.
Please click here for the full statement
Other statements:
Unravelling the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NT) of 1976 by Rita Camilleri
The 99-Year Lease Attack on the NT Land Rights Act by Ian Yule
NIT 4 Dec 2013 by Geoff Bagnall
Senator Scullion peddles De Soto in Arnhem Land by Jon Altman
Dismantling the Land Rights Act (NT) 1976 by Catholic Religious Australia
No 99 year leases – No oil and gas exploration say Arnhem Land clans by David Wood
Nigel Scullion responds to criticisms about the 99-year-leases by The Stringer
Coalition stirs the ghost of Jimmie Blacksmith by Tim Kroenert