Native Title Act 1993

This Act recognises and protects native title. It provides that native title cannot be extinguished contrary to the Act.

Essentially, this Act covers the following topics:

acts affecting native title (see subsections (3) to (6));

determining whether native title exists and compensation for acts affecting native title (see subsection (7)).

There are basically 2 kinds of acts affecting native title:

past acts (mainly acts done before this Act’s commencement on 1 January 1994 that were invalid because of native title); and

future acts (mainly acts done after this Act’s commencement that either validly affect native title or are invalid because of native title).

For past acts and future acts, this Act deals with the following matters:

their validity;

their effect on native title;

compensation for the acts.

However, for certain acts (called intermediate period acts) done mainly before the judgment of the High Court in Wik Peoples v Queensland (1996) 187 CLR 1, that would be invalid because they fail to pass any of the future act tests in Division 3 of Part 2, or for any other reason because of native title, this Act provides for similar consequences to past acts.

This Act also confirms that many acts done before the High Court’s judgment, that were either valid, or have been validated under the past act or intermediate period act provisions, will have extinguished native title. If the acts are previous exclusive possession acts (see section 23B), the extinguishment is complete; if the acts are previous non‑exclusive possession acts (see section 23F), the extinguishment is to the extent of any inconsistency.

This Act also:

provides for the Federal Court to make determinations of native title and compensation; and

provides for the Federal Court to refer native title and compensation applications for mediation; and

provides for the Federal Court to make orders to give effect to terms of agreements reached by parties to proceedings including terms that involve matters other than native title; and

establishes a National Native Title Tribunal with power to:

make determinations about whether certain future acts can be done and whether certain agreements concerning native title are to be covered by the Act; and

provide assistance or undertake mediation in other matters relating to native title; and

deals with other matters such as the keeping of registers and the role of representative Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander bodies.