Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW) Review
|
||||||||||||
In 2004 the former Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, the Hon AJ Refshauge MP, announced the review of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act. The review's focus is on land council structures, governance and land dealing matters.
A Task Force was established by Minister Refshauge to oversee the Review. The Task Force comprised the Administrator of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, Mr Murray Chapman, the Registrar of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, Mr Stephen Wright and the Director General of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs, Ms Jody Broun. The Task Force ended in December 2005 after it made recommendations to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, the Hon M Orkopoulos MP, concerning amendments to the Act.
The Task Force in making its recommendations took into consideration feedback gained from consultations with Aboriginal people across the State. These consultations were conducted by the NSW Aboriginal Land Council in eight locations across the State in October 2004-November 2004 and June-July 2005. The Department of Aboriginal Affairs also consulted Aboriginal communities in 10 regions across the State in November-December 2005.
The Government in approving the amending of the Act considered the Task Force recommendations, written submissions and feedback from community consultations.
Copies of the Aboriginal Land Rights Review Task Force publications entitled Summary of Issues Paper 1: Review of the Land Dealings Provisions of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 and the Summary of Issues Paper 2: Structure, Representation, Government and Benefits, and the Report of the Ten Community Consultation Forums prepared by Mr Jack Beetson and Ms Wendy Machin, who were independent facilitators of these consultations, can be downloaded.
