FED: Senate to today overturn NT native title regime = 2

AAP General News (Australia)
08-31-1999
FED: Senate to today overturn NT native title regime = 2

Senator Woodley said one option was for Prime Minister John Howard to amend the Wik
legislation to enable greater scrutiny of state regimes.

"That is an option ... that is up to Mr Howard, I think; another option of course is to
move forward with an overall, commonwealth regime through the National Native Title Tribunal,"
he said.

"I am hoping in the next few weeks we can actually get an agreement between everybody that
will enable us to move forward."

He said the South Australian regime was a good model because it operated on the 1993 native
title legislation and had not led to any clog-up in the system.

Meanwhile, Senator Brian Harradine agreed the matter was a problem.

"We didn't really anticipate that this would be a problem but we can see theoretically that
it could be a problem," Senator Harradine told ABC Radio.

"If we had only fixed this up at the time ... well, it has got to be fixed up now."

Asked if it would affect other state regimes, he said: "Quite obviously if it applies here
it is something that should be given favourable consideration elsewhere."

AAP rmm/kr

KEYWORD: WIK D/L 2 CANBERRA

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