Federal Government passes reforms of Native Title Legislation

Posted: February 8th, 2021

The Senate has passed the Native Title Legislation Amendment Bill 2020 (the Bill) with a specific date to be announced of when the new measures will commence.

The Bill amends the Native Title  Act 1993 (Native Title Act) and the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (CATSI Act) to improve native title claims resolution, agreement-making, Indigenous decision-making and dispute resolution processes, including to:

  1. give greater flexibility to native title claim groups to set their internal processes;
  2. streamline and improve native title claims resolution and agreement-making;
  3. allow historical extinguishment over areas of national and state park to be disregarded where the parties agree;
  4. increase the transparency and accountability of registered native title bodies corporate (RNTBCs); and
  5. create new pathways to address native title-related disputes arising following a native title determination.

Time will be given to ensure that native title claim groups have time to consider the effect of the changes on how their claim will be managed, and to change their internal processes if necessary.

The Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) can provide information, guidance and support around the process to update rule books.

The NIAA will be producing a factsheet on the new requirements which will be made available to RNTBCs and Prescribed Bodies Corporate (PBCs).

The ORIC has also agreed to develop a generic rule book template that native title holders could consider when responding to the new requirements.

Please read the joint media release for further information.