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Date Posted: 10:44:19 03/13/02 Wed
Author: Buffy's vampire
Subject: Over here in Oz the Aborigines are the losers


- NATIONAL


Native title 'a disaster' for land rights in NSW

By Debra Jopson


The state's leading land rights body has ditched its commitment to native title, which, it says, has been a "disaster" for NSW Aborigines that has divided the community and delivered little.

The Native Title Act was "discriminatory and flawed", the chairman of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, Rod Towney, said.

"It's been a disaster as far as we are concerned. It is creating a lot of division among us."

It may have been effective in other areas, but it had simply not worked in NSW. "In regard to the acquisition of land, quite frankly, we're better off buying it, or claiming vacant Crown land under our state legislation."


In NSW, a single agreement - that covering Crescent Head - "actually recognises native title".

There had been other agreements, "but they don't acknowledge the existence of native title. Indeed, some go a long way to avoid it," he said.

Land councils in other states had fought hard for coveted "representative body" status to act for native title claimants. It had taken the NSW Aboriginal Land Council eight years to force its native title unit to go it alone.

The $3 million federal funding for the native title unit last year could have been better spent on claims under state land rights legislation, Mr Towney said.

The only people winning out of native title were "the lawyers and anthropologists".

Some Aborigines were being badly advised that they could win millions through native title claims. Others believed the NSW Land Rights Act provided a better approach. This led to conflict, tearing families apart. "We have parents and a mother and son fighting. It's just not right in Aboriginal communities."

But a spokesman for the new body, NSW Native Title Services, predicted there would now be greater division. Keeping native title and land claims "under one hat" had minimised conflict.

He claimed that the economic viability of land councils would be threatened because a move to dispose of land granted under the state land rights act after 1994 would require verification that there were no native title interests in it. This would now be more difficult.

Native title was "delivering" to Aborigines in this state and was important as statutory recognition of prior occupation, he said. However, the NSW Government "will go to the edge of the earth" to stop native title being recognised in agreements.

The state manager of the Native Title Tribunal, Andrew Solomon, said native title extended options for Aborigines with traditional connections with the land, though large areas of NSW were not claimable.

Three indigenous land use agreements - at Byron Bay, Tumut-Brungle and in the Hunter - had been registered and two more had been notified.

According to land council figures, of 6652 land claims lodged over the past 19 years in NSW, 1991 had been granted, delivering 76,216 hectares into Aboriginal hands.

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