Contact the Tribunal The National Native Title Tribunal has offices in Adelaide, Brisbane, Cairns, Darwin, Melbourne, 08 Perth and Sydney. A wide range of information is available at www.nntt.gov.au . Principal Registry 09 Level 4, Commonwealth Law Courts Building 1 Victoria Avenue Perth WA 6000 National Native Title Tribunal Annual Report 2008–2009 Tribunal National Native Title GPO Box 9973 Perth WA 6848 Telephone (08) 9268 7272 Facsimile (08) 9268 7299 New South Wales and Australian South Australia Registry Capital Territory Registry Level 10, Chesser House Level 25, 25 Bligh Street 91 Grenfell Street Sydney NSW 2000 Adelaide SA 5000 GPO Box 9973 GPO Box 9973 Sydney NSW 2001 Adelaide SA 5001 Telephone (02) 9235 6300 Telephone (08) 8306 1230 Annual Report Facsimile (02) 9233 5613 Facsimile (08) 8224 0939 Northern Territory Registry Victoria and Tasmania Registry Level 5, NT House Level 8 2008–2009 22 Mitchell Street 310 King Street Darwin NT 0800 Melbourne Vic. 3000 GPO Box 9973 GPO Box 9973 Darwin NT 0801 Melbourne Vic. 3001 Telephone (08) 8936 1600 Telephone (03) 9920 3000 Facsimile (08) 8981 7982 Facsimile (03) 9606 0680 Queensland Registry Western Australia Registry Level 30, 239 George Street Level 11, East Point Plaza Brisbane Qld 4000 233 Adelaide Terrace GPO Box 9973 Perth WA 6000 Brisbane Qld 4001 GPO Box 9973 Telephone (07) 3226 8200 Perth WA 6848 Facsimile (07) 3226 8235 Telephone (08) 9268 9700 Facsimile (08) 9221 7158 Queensland Registry– Cairns Regional Office Level 14, Cairns Corporate Tower NATIONAL FREECALL NUMBER: 1800 640 501 15 Lake Street Cairns Qld 4870 WEBSITE: www.nntt.gov.au PO Box 9973 Cairns Qld 4870 National Native Title Tribunal office hours: Telephone (07) 4048 1500 8.30am–5.00pm Facsimile (07) 4051 3660 8.00am–4.30pm (Northern Territory) Facilitating timely and effective outcomes. Annual Report 2008–2009 Facilitating timely and effective outcomes. About this report While required to report to the responsible Minister under s. 133 of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cwlth), the primary purpose of the annual report of the National Native Title Tribunal is to inform and be accountable to, fi rstly, 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. Copies of this annual report in book form may be obtained from any Tribunal registry (see back cover for contact details) or online at www.nntt.gov.au in PDF format. We draw attention to the online version 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 the Public Affairs unit on freecall 1800 640 501 or email [email protected] . ISSN 1324-9991 ISSN 1445-7776 (Online) © Commonwealth of Australia 2009 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. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be addressed to the Commonwealth Copyright Administration, Attorney-General’s Department, Robert Garran Offi ces, National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600 or posted at www.ag.gov.au/cca . PAGE 2 29 September 2009 The Hon. Robert McClelland 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 2009. This report has been prepared in accordance with s. 133 of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cwlth). Yours sincerely Graeme Neate President PAGE 3 Contents About this report . 2 Letter of transmission . 3 List of fi gures . 6 List of tables . 7 President’s overview . 9 Year in review . 9 Introduction . 9 External factors affecting the Tribunal . 10 Trends within the Tribunal . 21 Future trends and challenges . 24 Conclusion . 33 Tribunal overview . 35 Role and functions . 35 Tribunal members . 37 Organisational structure . 38 Outcome and output structure . 40 Report on performance . 43 Financial performance . 43 How the Tribunal is funded . 43 Outcome and output performance . 43 Key results in 2008–09 . 46 Tribunal fi nances. 46 Understanding the Tribunal’s fi nancial statements . 47 Performance overview . 48 Price . 48 Client satisfaction . 48 Performance against effectiveness indicators . 48 Results . 48 Overview of current applications . 50 Shifts in volume of registration, notifi cation and mediation of native title determination applications . 50 Output group 1—Stakeholder and community relations . 59 Output 1.1—Capacity-building and strategic/sectoral initiatives . 59 Output 1.2—Assistance and information . 60 Output group 2—Agreement-making . 63 Output 2.1—Indigenous land use agreements . 63 Output 2.2—Native title agreements and related agreements . 66 PAGE 4 Output 2.3—Future act agreements . 72 Output group 3—Decisions . 74 Output 3.1—Registration of native title claimant applications . 74 Output 3.2—Registration of indigenous land use agreements . 76 Comment on performance . 77 Output 3.3—Future act determinations and decisions whether negotiations were undertaken in good faith . 79 Output 3.4—Finalised objections to expedited procedure . 83 Management . 87 Tribunal executive . 87 Role and responsibilities . 87 Corporate governance . 88 Members’ meetings . 88 Strategic Planning Advisory Group . 89 External Relations Working Group . 89 Agreement-making Liaison Group . 90 National Future Act Liaison Group . 90 ILUA Strategy Group . 91 Resources Coordination Group . 92 Senior managers’ meetings . 92 Corporate and operational planning and performance monitoring . 93 Risk management . 93 Information and technology management . 94 Management of human resources . 95 Recruitment and workforce planning . ..