The Land Rights Act and Remote Community Governance: The Impacts of Fifteen Years of Land Tenure Reforms in the Northern Territory

Since 2006, remote communities on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory (NT) have been the target of a series of land tenure reforms, mostly government-initiated. The three most significant are: the roll out of section 19 leases over individual lots, and the grant of government-entity and community-entity township leases over entire communities. These reforms are widespread and long-term. Beforehand, leasing in communities was rare. After these reforms there are now thousands of leases (mostly section 19 leases) over almost every lot in remote communities. Despite their extensive and varied impacts on land rights and remote community governance, there has been little research on the reforms, and none providing the views of Aboriginal people most impacted. Adopting a mixed methods research design, and through a case study on the region of one of the two largest Land Councils, the Central Land Council (CLC), the research examines both the structural impacts and lived experience of these reforms to Aboriginal land rights in the NT. Through interviews with Aboriginal community residents and traditional owners, the research attempts to elevate their voices and experiences. Applying an Aboriginal land governance lens helps to make visible the governance impacts of the reforms, which have been almost invisible in official discourse about the reforms. The research examines the process of the tenure reforms as well as their outcomes. For the first time the insights of those ‘inside’ the policy processes have been collected, helping to shed light on what led to the reforms and why they took the form they did. The research found that the reforms have several consequences that did not appear to be anticipated in government statements about their purpose. These include: modification of the rights of Aboriginal traditional owners and the reframing of their relationship to community residents; and impacts on the role and reach of the Land Councils by both increasing their practical jurisdiction within remote communities, while also creating two additional land rights institutions. Further, these reforms have resulted in a welcome new rental stream for Aboriginal traditional owners, although this too brings governance challenges. The research suggests how future land tenure policies should be designed, and emphasises the need for a governance development approach, rather than a legal, technical one, to designing and implementing tenure reforms in remote communities

Leasing reforms on Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory: Impacts on land rights and remote community governance

Since 2006, Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory has been subject to a range of land tenure reforms, mostly government-initiated. The most momentous are three different leasing regimes that apply to remote communities – s 19 leasing over individual lots, and two different forms of township leasing over whole communities. These reforms have modified the rights of Aboriginal traditional owners and reframed their relationship to community residents; impacted on the role and jurisdiction of the land councils and created and funded new land rights institutions; and resulted in a significant new rental stream for Aboriginal landowners. This paper examines the extensive and varied impacts of these three leasing models on the governance of the land rights system and remote communities, and the changing governance dynamic between traditional owners and community residents. These governance impacts are invisible in official discourse, as are the voices of Aboriginal people themselves. This paper first summarises the external governance environment that shaped the reforms, demonstrating that land tenure reform in the NT since 2006 has largely been a tool of government, not a tool for Aboriginal landowners. However, the most recent of the three leasing reforms - community-entity township leasing – represents a departure from this unilateral approach by government as it was initiated by Aboriginal interests and appears to be a welcome option for some traditional owners and community residents. The paper comments on both the process of the tenure reforms as well as their outcomes