Inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people

Joint Standing Committee on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs

There is a broad understanding that the imposed and colonising laws brought to Australia by the British are not the same as those preexisting systems of governance and law recognised in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) [1992] HCA 23. Such an understanding though does not extend to the specifics of the ongoing trauma and racism imposed by these laws, as progressive as we may feel contemporary laws are. In this submission, we will examine the prejudice in the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) (RD Act), the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (NT Act) and Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (Cth) (CATSI Act). This submission makes no formal recommendations but does highlight the ways in which existing regulatory processes for managing native title and cultural rights are failing Traditional Owners.