Secure tenure for home ownership and economic development on land subject to native title [Sept 2012]

Abstract

In Australia the focus of the public policy debate on land rights has shifted from the struggle of Indigenous peoples to have their pre-colonial possession of land recognised to how reinstated rights and interests in land might be exercised to fulfil Indigenous peoples’ own aspirations, including for economic development and home ownership. Those people who have had their native title rights and interests in land legally recognised are contemplating the implications for their future prosperity. They are pondering the types of investments they can make to develop their land for social and economic purposes, the use and development rights they might temporarily exchange for income, or, as a last resort, the rights and interests they are prepared to relinquish in return for compensation.