National Native Title Tribunal Annual Report 2000-2001
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NATIONAL NATIVE TITLE TRIBUNAL NATIVE NATIONAL N National Native Title Tribunal contact details ATIONAL WESTERN AUSTRALIA (principal registry) QUEENSLAND Level 4, Commonwealth Law Courts Building Level 30, MLC Building, 239 George Street, 1 Victoria Avenue, Perth WA 6000 Brisbane Qld 4000 GPO Box 9973, Perth WA 6848 GPO Box 9973, Brisbane Qld 4001 N Tel: (08) 9268 7272 Tel: (07) 3226 8200 ATIVE Fax: (08) 9268 7299 Fax: (07) 3226 8235 • Cairns (regional office) NEW SOUTH WALES Level 14, Cairns Corporate Tower Level 25, 25 Bligh Street, Sydney NSW 2000 15 Lake Street, Cairns Qld 4870 T GPO Box 9973, Sydney NSW 2001 NATIONAL NATIVE PO Box 9973, Cairns Qld 4870 ITLE Tel: (02) 9235 6300 Tel: (07) 4048 1500 TITLE TRIBUNAL Fax: (02) 9233 5613 Fax: (07) 4051 3660 T VICTORIA SOUTH AUSTRALIA RIBUNAL Level 8, 310 King Street, Melbourne Vic. 3000 Level 10, Chesser House, 91 Grenfell Street, GPO Box 9973, Melbourne Vic. 3001 Adelaide SA 5000 Tel: (03) 9920 3000 GPO Box 9973, Adelaide SA 5001 Fax: (03) 9606 0680 Tel: (08) 8306 1230 Fax: (08) 8224 0939 NORTHERN TERRITORY A Level 5, NT House, 22 Mitchell Street, AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY* NNUAL Darwin NT 0800 Level 4, Canberra House, GPO Box 9973, Darwin NT 0801 40 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra ACT 2600 Tel: (08) 8936 1600 GPO Box 9973, Canberra ACT 2601 Fax: (08) 8981 7982 Tel: (02) 6243 4611 Fax: (02) 6247 0962 R TASMANIA* EPORT EPORT Ground floor, Commonwealth Law NATIONAL FREECALL NUMBER Courts Building 1 800 640 501 39–41 Davey Street, Hobart Tas. 7000 GPO Box 9973, Hobart Tas. 7001 NATIONAL NATIVE TITLE TRIBUNAL Tel: (03) 6232 1712 OFFICE HOURS 2000 – 2001 Fax: (03) 6232 1701 8:30 a.m.–5:00 p.m. WEB SITE ANNUAL REPORT www.nntt.gov.au 2000 – 2001 * In Tasmania and the ACT the Administrative Appeals Tribunal acts as an agent for the National Native Title Tribunal. Its office hours in Hobart are 9:30 a.m.–1:00 p.m., 2:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m. NATIONAL NATIVE TITLE TRIBUNAL ANNUAL REPORT 2000 – 2001 National Native Title Tribunal, Perth, Western Australia © Commonwealth of Australia 2001 ISSN 1324-9991 ISSN 1445-7776 (Online) ISSN 1445-7784 (CD-ROM) ISBN 0-642-48744-8 This work is copyright. It may be reproduced in whole or in part for study or training purposes if an acknowledgment of the source is included. Such use must not be for the purposes of sale or commercial exploitation. Subject to the Copyright Act, reproduction, storage in a retrieval system or transmission in any form by any means of any part of the work other than for the purposes above is not permitted without written permission. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction should be addressed to Ms Marian Schoen, Director, Corporate Services and Public Affairs, National Native Title Tribunal, GPO Box 9973, Perth WA 6848. Telephone: (08) 9268 7272 Facsimile: (08) 9268 7299 Email: [email protected] Web site: www.nntt.gov.au Photos on pages 41 and 95 appear courtesy of Tourism Queensland iii About this report The primary purpose of the annual report of the National Native Title Tribunal is to inform and be accountable to, first, the Parliament, and second, its stakeholders about the services provided. While required to report to the responsible Minister under section 133 of the Native Title Act 1993, the Tribunal is a statutory authority and is therefore not compelled to observe the annual reporting requirements for government departments; however, it chooses to do so. An index as to how the Tribunal has observed the requirements is on page 198. This annual report in book form is typeset in Goudy 10/13 point. Copies of it may be purchased from any registry of the National Native Title Tribunal (see back cover for contact details). It is also available as a CD- ROM free of charge over the counter or online at www.nntt.gov.au in HTML format that may be enlarged to suit the reader. The online and CD-ROM versions of the report also include a rich text format document set in 12 point type and a PDF version for downloading. The online versions are especially useful to those readers who prefer to enlarge the type and who may prefer to choose particular parts of the report for downloading. Upon request, the text of this report in whole or in part can be supplied free of charge in Braille. The National Native Title Tribunal encourages readers to make comment on the usefulness and contents of the report. Please forward any comments to Helen Bradbury on freecall 1800 640 501 or on email [email protected] . iv Contents Letter of transmission . iii About this report . iv Contents . v List of figures . ix List of tables . x President’s overview . 1 The year in review . 2 Introduction . 2 Trends within the Tribunal . 2 Membership of the Tribunal . 8 Staff and management of the Tribunal . 8 Development of relationships with stakeholders . 9 External changes affecting the Tribunal . 10 Re-recognition and roles of representative bodies . 20 Future prospects . 22 Introduction . 22 The volume of native title work will increase . 22 Agreement-making will become the usual method of resolving native title issues . 23 The form and content of agreements will vary from place to place . 25 Timeframes for negotiating agreements should, on average, be reduced . 25 There will be an increased focus on ‘second generation’ native title issues . 26 Resource use will directly influence agreements . 27 The Federal Court will continue to affect, if not drive, native title processes . 28 There will be an increased focus on information management . 29 Land planning, land access and land use laws may need to be revised or refined . 32 The resolution of native title issues will not, of itself, resolve social issues . 32 Conclusion . 34 Tribunal overview . 35 Role and function . 36 Organisational structure . 37 Outcome and output structure . 39 v Report on performance . 41 Financial performance . 42 Outcome and output performance . 44 Output group 1.1 — Registrations . 46 Output 1.1.1 — Claimant applications . 46 Output 1.1.2 — Native title determinations . 53 Output 1.1.3 — Indigenous land use agreement applications . 59 Output group 1.2 — Agreement-making . 62 Output 1.2.1 — Indigenous land use . 63 Output 1.2.2 — Claimant, non-claimant and compensation . 66 Output 1.2.3 — Future act . 69 Output group 1.3 — Arbitration . 73 Output 1.3.1 — Future act determinations . 73 Output 1.3.2 — Objections to the expedited procedure . 77 Output group 1.4 — Assistance, notification and reporting . 80 Output 1.4.1 — Assistance to applicants and other persons . 80 Output 1.4.2 — Notification . 87 Output 1.4.3 — Reports to the Federal Court . 91 Management . 95 Corporate governance . 96 Tribunal members . 96 Strategic planning advisory group . 98 ILUA strategy group . 98 Future act liaison group . 98 Research reference group . 99 Tribunal executive . 100 Role and responsibilities . 100 Senior management committees . 101 Remuneration and Australian Workplace Agreements . 101 Corporate planning . ..