The National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) is an independent body established under the ''

Native Title Act 1993 The ''Native Title Act 1993'' (Cth) is a law passed by the Australian Parliament, the purpose of which is "to provide a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its co-existence with the national land managem ...

'' in Australia as a special measure for the advancement and protection of

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

peoples (Indigenous Australians). It manages applications for and administration of

native title in Australia Native title is the designation given to the common law doctrine of Aboriginal title in Australia, which is the recognition by Australian law that Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander people) have righ ...

Description

The National Native Title Tribunal comprises a President and Members appointed by the

Governor-General of Australia The governor-general of Australia is the representative of the monarch, currently King Charles III, in Australia.Indigenous land use agreements (ILUAs). CC-BY icon

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licence (as pe
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. The NNTT is supported by the Native Title Registrar, also appointed by the Governor-General. The statutory office-holders of the Tribunal each have separate and specific functions and responsibilities to perform under the Act. It is a Commonwealth Government agency, which helps people reach native title outcomes by agreement. The

Federal Court of Australia The Federal Court of Australia is an Australian superior court of record which has jurisdiction to deal with most civil disputes governed by federal law (with the exception of family law matters), along with some summary (less serious) and indic ...

makes determinations on whether

native title Aboriginal title is a common law doctrine that the land rights of indigenous peoples to customary tenure persist after the assumption of sovereignty under settler colonialism. The requirements of proof for the recognition of aboriginal title, ...

exists, or not. Since July 2012 the Federal Court has had responsibility for the corporate administration of the NNTT. The President and Members of the Tribunal, assisted by the Registrar, under delegation from the Registrar of the Federal Court of Australia (the Court) are responsible for managing the administrative affairs of the NNTT.

Organisational structure

The President is responsible for managing the Tribunal's administrative affairs. The Governor-General appoints the President and Tribunal Members for specific terms of not longer than five years. Members are involved in: *providing assistance and information *helping people to understand native title and its processes * Indigenous land use agreement negotiations and future act hearings and processes. The Registrar has specific responsibilities under the ''Native Title Act 1993'' and is responsible for the management of employees.

Role and functions

The Tribunal's role is to: *Assist parties to come to agreements over some proposed activities or developments, called

future act The future is the time after the past and present. Its arrival is considered inevitable due to the existence of time and the laws of physics. Due to the apparent nature of reality and the unavoidability of the future, everything that currently ...

s, and makes arbitral decisions about these matters. *Apply the registration test to all new native title claimant applications. All new claims must satisfy this set of conditions to be given certain procedural rights over the area claimed. *Notify the public when native title applications have been registered. Notification involves placing advertisements in newspapers as well as sending letters directly to people and organisations with a registered interest in the specific area. *Maintain three registers which hold detailed information about native title in Australia: the Register of Native Title Claims, the National Native Title Register and the Register of Indigenous Land Use Agreements. *Negotiate other types of agreements, such as Indigenous Land Use Agreements. On request, the Tribunal can also provide assistance and information to people involved in the native title process.

Locations

The Tribunal has offices in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

and

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

PBCs, RNTBCs, RATSIBs, NTRBs and NTSPs

When an Aboriginal or

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal Australians, Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia ...

body registers a claim with the NNTT, they are referred to as a prescribed body corporate (PBC) until such time as a determination is made, when they become a

Registered Native Title Body Corporate A Registered Native Title Body Corporate (RNTBC) is a corporation nominated by a group of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people for the purposes of native title in Australia, to represent their native title rights and interests, once that ...

, or RNTBC, registered with the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations (ORIC) under the ''Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006'' (Cwth). A "representative Aboriginal/Torres Strait Islander body", or RATSIB, is a body recognised by the Commonwealth under s 203AD of the ''Native Title Act'' "to represent native title holders and persons who may hold native title, and to consult with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander persons within a specified area". There is a network of native title representative bodies (NTRBs) and native title service providers (NTSPs) to assist native title claimants and holders, of which the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA) funds 14. These include

land council Land councils, also known as Aboriginal land councils, or land and sea councils, are Australian community organisations, generally organised by region, that are commonly formed to represent the Indigenous Australians (both Aboriginal Australians ...

s and RNTBCs. CC-BY icon

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References

External links

* (Latest version as of July 2020) * {{Authority control Australian property law Australian constitutional law Native title in Australia Organisations serving Indigenous Australians 1993 establishments in Australia Courts and tribunals established in 1993