Submission to Australian Law Reform Commission Review of the Native Title Act Discussion Paper 82 (DP82) Feb 2015

In this Submission, AIATSIS responds to the questions and proposals in the Australian Law Reform Commission's (ALRC) Discussion Paper 82.  The Discussion Paper forms part of the ALRC’s processes, building toward a final report of its Review of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (NTA). AIATSIS has provided other input to this review, including our Submission to the ALRC Review of the Native Title Act in July 2014 and our Comments on the draft terms of reference for the ALRC Review in June 2013.

This Submission responds to the ALRC’s focus on ‘connection’, ‘authorisation’ and ‘joinder’ and promotes that provisions in relation to these topics operate in a way that better reflects the NTA’s Preamble and Objects as well as the important jurisprudential move toward a more holistic concept of native title, as recently discussed by the High Court in Western Australia v Brown [2014] HCA 8.