Premier speaks out on native title and lease applications Source: AAP | Published: Sunday June 18, 3:30 PM Premier Richard Court says the West Australian Government is fed up with unworkable native title legislation. Mr Court said there had been 'disarray' in the courts for the past seven years and believed decisions about native title should be left to the elected representatives in federal and state parliaments. "We believe it should be the elected representatives in federal and state parliaments that are making the laws not relying upon judges, courts to make interpretations of what have proven to be unworkable laws," Mr Court said. It was announced two days ago the state government would pre-empt a High Court challenge on a landmark native title decision by bypassing federal Native Title laws and processing a giant backlog of mining and exploration lease applications. Mr Court said the government would work through more than outstanding lease applications in a bid to give some certainty to companies under what he has maintained is 'unworkable' federal legislation. His announcement, based on a ruling by the Full Court of the Federal Court in March relating to the Miriuwung Gajerrong peoples of northern Western Australia, has angered the Democrats who say Mr Court is taking advantage of the court decision. Originally, the federal court had granted the group native title over 8,000 square kilometres in the east Kimberley region of WA. The state government appealed that decision and, in March, the Full Court reversed its ruling, saying native title had been extinguished over most of the land, including the Argyle and Ord river regions. That decision is itself the subject of an appeal to the High Court by the Miriuwung Gajerrong peoples. Mr Court condemned the Democrats for being 'negative' about the whole issue of native title, after they accused him of exploiting the court decision. 'How about the Democrats and the Labor Party being prepared to support a state like WA," he said. "Why don't they give us the chance to make an unworkable system workable instead of this constant negativity, they know the native title system as it currently is does not work," Mr Court said. Two days ago Mr Court said as a result of the Full Court ruling in March, the government had decided to process mining applications on lands that met guidelines set down by the court where native title had been extinguished. "As a result of the decision that came down with the appeal in the federal court, we will now be processing a number of titles where it is believed that native title has been extinguished, and there will not be a need for them to go through the Native Title processes," Mr Court said. "Instead of waiting for courts to keep making their interpretations of law, we should have elected legislators in the federal parliament giving us the certainty that we need. "But in this case there has been a federal court decision, it has been appealed, they have been quite specific in the guidelines they have set down, and we believe we have really no option but to start processing claims under these guidelines." The Goldfields Land Council and the Aboriginal Legal Service (WA) have condemned the government's move but other groups such as the Association of Mining and Exploration Companies (AMEC) have welcomed the announcement. -- ********************************** 'Click' to protect the rainforest: Make the Rainforest Site your homepage! http://www.therainforestsite.com/ ********************************** ------------------------------------------------------ RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/recoznet2%40paradigm4.com.au/
