NATIVE TITLE ACT CHANGES
June 06 2012
Mitchell Hooke, Chief Executive
Reforms to the Native Title Act announced today will improve the operability of the Act without diminishing Indigenous rights.
The proposed changes are broadly consistent with proposals to enhance the Act put forward by the MCA.
Significantly, the changes announced today formalise industry-leading practice on good faith negotiations over native title.
MCA member companies already negotiate in good faith, but we are not confident our approach is universally adopted across the industry.
We look forward to working with Government to ensure that the focus of reforms to good faith negotiations centre on ensuring the quality of the negotiation process rather than prescribing timeframes or pre-determined outcomes.
The MCA supports the tax-status changes for native title payments and will continue to work with the National Native Title Council to establish a new model to increase economic development initiatives and intergenerational benefits through our proposed Indigenous Community Development Corporation.
News Categories