A veteran native title barrister and green groups are warning the Northern Territory government’s plan to pass a new law giving a Territory Coordinator bureaucrat the power to “slash red tape” could erode Indigenous land rights and open the door to nuclear waste storage.
The draft bill to introduce a new Territory Coordinator position, for which public consultation closes on Friday, would also give the NT chief minister new powers to “streamline approvals” and to issue “exemption notices” which could exclude the application of a law to government processes.
It would also grant the Territory Coordinator and chief minister the power to name significant economic projects or areas for development, and “step in” to take over and speed up assessment processes for those.
Barrister Greg McIntyre SC, who won the 1992 Mabo case that paved the way for Australia’s Indigenous native title laws, said the proposed bill would “very likely” be open to legal challenge because it appeared to conflict with federal Indigenous land rights laws.
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