Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983

Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act or any other law, any contracts entered into between the former Trust and its officers or employees in respect of wages, payments or any other benefits or in respect of conditions of employment, or any other contracts entered into between the former Trust and any person and declared by the Minister to be contracts to which this clause applies, are on and from the appointed day or the date of the declaration, as the case may require, null and void and any money which would, but for this clause, have been payable under those contracts shall not be payable or paid by the former Trust, the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council, the Crown or any other person or body.

Any payments made under a contract referred to in subclause (1) before the appointed day and which, in the Minister’s opinion, are excessive may be declared by the Minister by instrument in writing to have been unauthorised payments.

A payment under a contract referred to in subclause (1) after the time that it became null and void under that subclause or an unauthorised payment referred to in subclause (2) shall be repaid to the Crown by the person to whom it was paid, on demand, and if not paid shall be recoverable, wholly or in part, in any court of competent jurisdiction as a debt due to the Crown.

In subclause (3), a reference to the Crown includes a reference to a person or authority nominated by the Minister, by instrument in writing, for the purposes of that subclause.

In the absence of evidence to the contrary, any instrument purported to have been signed by the Minister for the purposes of this clause shall, in any legal proceedings, be accepted without proof of the signature of the Minister.