/1280 AR Cover_R1 10/3/02 15:29 Page 1 NATIONAL NATIVE TITLETRIBUNAL NATIVE NATIONAL NATIONAL NATIVE TITLE TRIBUNAL CONTACT DETAILS N ATIONAL PRINCIPAL REGISTRY (PERTH) NORTHERN TERRITORY 4th Floor, Commonwealth Law Courts Building 5th Floor, NT House 1 Victoria Avenue 22 Mitchell Street Perth WA 6000 Darwin NT 0800 GPO Box 9973, Perth WA 6848 GPO Box 9973, Darwin NT 0801 N Tel: (08) 9268 7272 Tel: (08) 8936 1600 Fax: (08) 9268 7299 Fax: (08) 8981 7982 ATIVE WESTERN AUSTRALIA QUEENSLAND 11th Floor, East Point Plaza Level 30, MLC Building 233 Adelaide Terrace 239 George Street T Perth WA 6000 Brisbane Qld 4000 ITLE NATIONAL NATIVE GPO Box 9973, Perth WA 6848 GPO Box 9973, Brisbane Qld 4001 Tel: (08) 9268 9700 Tel: (07) 3226 8200 TITLE TRIBUNAL Fax: (08) 9221 7158 Fax: (07) 3226 8235 T NEW SOUTH WALES AND Cairns (regional office) RIBUNAL ANNUAL REPORT AUSTRALIAN CAPITAL TERRITORY Level 14, Cairns Corporate Tower Level 25 15 Lake Street 25 Bligh Street Cairns Qld 4870 Sydney NSW 2000 PO Box 9973, Cairns Qld 4870 GPO Box 9973, Sydney NSW 2001 Tel: (07) 4048 1500 GPO Box 9973, Canberra ACT 2601 Fax: (07) 4051 3660 Tel: (02) 9235 6300 Fax: (02) 9233 5613 SOUTH AUSTRALIA Level 10, Chesser House VICTORIA AND TASMANIA 91 Grenfell Street Level 8 Adelaide SA 5000 310 King Street GPO Box 9973, Adelaide SA 5001 Melbourne Vic. 3000 Tel: (08) 8306 1230 GPO Box 9973, Melbourne Vic. 3001 Fax: (08) 8224 0939 GPO Box 9973, Hobart Tas. 7001 Tel: (03) 9920 3000 NATIONAL FREECALL NUMBER Fax: (03) 9606 0680 1 800 640 501 2001 –2002 NATIONAL NATIVE TITLE TRIBUNAL OFFICE HOURS 8:30 am – 5:00 pm ANNUAL REPORT WEB SITE www.nntt.gov.au 2001 – 2002 /1280 AR NNTT 2002_Final_A 10/22/02 17:42 Page ~i NATIONAL NATIVE TITLE TRIBUNAL ANNUAL REPORT 2001 – 2002 National Native Title Tribunal, Perth, Western Australia /1280 AR NNTT 2002_Final_A 10/22/02 17:42 Page ~ii About this report While required to report to the responsible Minister under section 133 of the Native Title Act 1993, the primary purpose of the annual report of the National Native Title Tribunal is to inform and be accountable to, firstly, the Parliament, and secondly, its stakeholders about the services provided. 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. 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 contain a rich text format document set in 12-point type and a PDF version for downloading. We draw attention to the online versions for 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] . © Commonwealth of Australia 2002 ISSN 1324-9991 ISSN 1445-7776 (Online) ISSN 1445-7784 (CD-ROM) ISBN 0-642-48744-8 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission from the Commonwealth available from the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. Requests and inquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to Commonwealth Copyright Administration, Intellectual Property Branch Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts GPO Box 2154 Canberra ACT 2601 Telephone: (02) 6271 1351 Email: [email protected] Web site: http://www.dcita.gov.au Photos appear courtesy of Annabel Moeller (p. 21), The West Australian (p. 41) and Tourism Queensland (p. 107) ii /1280 AR NNTT 2002_Final_A 10/22/02 17:42 Page ~iii NATIONAL NATIVE TITLE TRIBUNAL Commonwealth Law Courts Building GPO Box 9973, Perth WA 6848 Level 4 1 Victoria Avenue Telephone: (08) 9268 7272 PERTH WA 6000 Facsimile: (08) 9268 7299 AUSTRALIA Website: www.nntt.gov.au 9 October 2002 The Hon. Daryl Williams AM QC MP Attorney-General Parliament House CANBERRA ACT 2600 Dear Attorney I am pleased to submit to you, for presentation to the Parliament, the annual report of the National Native Title Tribunal for the year ended 30 June 2002. This report has been prepared in accordance with section 133 of the Native Title Act 1993. Yours sincerely Graeme Neate President FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT FREECALL 1800 640 501 iii /1280 AR NNTT 2002_Final_A 10/22/02 17:42 Page ~iv Contents About this report. ii Letter of transmission. iii Contents. iv List of figures . vii List of tables . viii President’s overview . 1 The year in review. 2 Introduction . 2 Trends within the Tribunal. 3 Development of relationships with stakeholders. 7 External changes affecting the Tribunal . 8 Responses to the tenth anniversary of Mabo v Queensland (No 2). 18 Future prospects. 22 Conclusion . 23 Tribunal overview . 24 Role and function . 25 Organisational structure . 26 Outcome and output structure . 28 Report on performance . 29 Financial performance . 30 Outcome and output performance . 32 Output group 1.1 — Registrations . 35 Output 1.1.1 — Registration of claimant applications . 35 Output 1.1.2 — Native title determinations. 40 Output 1.1.3 — Indigenous land use agreement applications . 47 Output group 1.2 — Agreement-making . 50 Output 1.2.1 — Indigenous land use agreement-making . 51 Output 1.2.2 — Claimant, non-claimant and compensation agreement-making . 54 Output 1.2.3 — Future act agreement-making . 58 Output group 1.3 — Arbitration . 63 Output 1.3.1 — Future act determinations . 63 Output 1.3.2 — Objections to the expedited procedure. 65 Output group 1.4 — Assistance, notification and reporting. 70 Output 1.4.1 — Assistance to applicants and other persons . 70 Output 1.4.2 — Notification . 76 Output 1.4.3 — Reports to the Federal Court. 79 Management . 82 Corporate governance . 83 Tribunal members . 83 Strategic planning advisory group . 85 ILUA strategy group . 85 Future act liaison group. 85 Agreement-making strategy group . 86 iv /1280 AR NNTT 2002_Final_A 10/22/02 17:42 Page ~v Tribunal Executive. 87 Role and responsibilities . 87 Senior management committees . 87 Research reference group . 88 SES remuneration . 88 Corporate planning . 89 Management of human resources. 90 Tribunal Capability Framework . 90 Learning and development. 90 Workforce planning . 91 Occupational health and safety performance . 91 Performance against disability strategy . 93 Risk management. 94 Information management . 95 Accountability. 96 Ethical standards and accountability . 97 Code of conduct . 97 External scrutiny . 98 Judicial decisions. 98 Parliamentary Joint Committee on Native Title and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Fund . 98 Freedom of information . 99 Other scrutiny . 99 Accountability to clients. 100 Evaluation of client and stakeholder needs and satisfaction . 100 Customer service charter . 100 Social justice and equity in service delivery . 101 Online services . 102 Performance against purchasing policies. 103 Procurement . 103 Information technology outsourcing . 104 Consultancies . 104 Environmental performance . 106 Appendices . 107 Appendix I Staffing . 108 Employees . ..