Barker J
This case concerns a claimant application under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) which has been in the Court for over twenty years. The applicant previously failed to provide connection material to the State of Western Australia by order of the Court, which was extended and then later suspended. The previous question before the Court in a hearing on 5 December 2018 was whether the Court should further adjourn the matter to enable further possible meetings of the claim group at a later date, which may lead to a resolution of the differences within the claim group.
In this previous hearing, a member of the claim group sought to make a statement, however Barker J ruled that it was not appropriate to do so, as she was not a member of the applicant and thus not authorised to speak on behalf of the applicant. The member of the claim group insisted on making a statement despite this, and subsequently his Honour adjourned the Court and issued orders from chambers.
Barker J ordered that the matter should be referred to the Registrar for further case management, and extend the time for compliance with the current connection material order to 29 March 2019.