Black & White Pay for Land Title Plight

To most Victorians, Native Title is viewed as somebody else's problem and no big deal.  They are, however, wrong.

Currently 53% of the State is subject to land claims.  While this is less than in other states (for example claims currently cover over 80% of the land area of WA), it is, nonetheless, a large area.  Moreover, the areas covered by the claims -- which include water rights over the Murray River and public right-of-ways-are vital to the economy of the State and have a wide impact on property owners.

Although mining is not a major activity and is not greatly effected by land claims in Victoria, Melbourne is the home-base of many of the nation's major mining firms.  We will only keep that home-base while Australia is a major area of mining activity.  If mining firms continue to move exploration and production offshore, as they are currently doing because of land rights, then head-office jobs will soon follow.

More importantly, the Australian economy is still predominantly resource based.  Resources -- rural, mineral and metals -- still represent over 70% of total exports.  Resources dominate our stock market.  Resource projects still are the main drivers of private investment.  In short, if the resource sector suffers, we all suffer.

And there is now no doubt that the Native Title Act (NTA) is hindering the growth of the resource sector and the Australian economy.

According to a recent survey of world miners, Australia is considered to have the most risky land-rights system amongst the major mining nations -- indeed the land-rights regime in Australia is now considered to be more uncertain than the chaos that reigns in New Guinea.

A major accounting firm recently estimated that since December 1993 native title has cost taxpayers $30 billion in lost mining revenue and investment opportunities.

Even ATSIC now agrees that " any argument that the NTA does not need amendment is unsustainable".

There are a number of fundamental faults with the NTA, the most significant being the right it gives to native-title claimants to negotiate with miners and pastoral leaseholders.  The NTA allows any Aboriginal to register a claim -- no matter how tenuous -- and thereby claim the right to negotiate at every stage of development.

This has led to a flood of claims.  For example, the WA gold fields region is currently subject to 90 different claims with some areas being subject to as many as 14 separate claims, some of which are conflicting claims by members of the same family.

These claims have virtually halted the issue of mining titles in WA.  There is currently a backlog 7,400 mining titles in the State which, even without further delay, will take three years to clear.  Only 181 or 86% of the 2094 titles submitted, since March 1995, have been granted-and none have overcome the Native Title Tribunal hurdles.  And things are getting worse, not better.

The debate is not about eliminating native title rights-they are accepted by all parties as a fact.  The debate is about the best way to inject sanity and a degree of certainty back into to property rights system.  Failure to do so will be costly to all Australians -- black and white.

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