Article by Ronald Mizen for the Australian Financial Review

The Albanese government is being urged to provide a base level of funding to native title groups every year and overhaul legislation to prevent mining companies and environmental activists “splintering” communities.

Jamie Lowe, chief executive of the National Native Title Council, which acts as the peak group for 268 native title organisations – known as Prescribed Bodies Corporates, or PBC – said about 180 of them were classified as and generated little income.

“These small PBCs often do not have sufficient funds to employ even a single staff member,” Mr Lowe said this week at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Summit in Melbourne.

This makes it almost impossible for groups to pursue opportunities that would advance their collective economic interests; a key plank in the creation of the native title regime on January 1, 1994.

“Since the establishment of PBCs, they have been caught in a ‘federation blackhole’, where state governments have not funded them because they are created by Commonwealth statute, and the Commonwealth sees them as part of the state-led ‘land management’ processes,” he said.

“Our PBCs have been chronically underfunded for 30 years as governments refuse to properly invest in our communities.”

Mr Lowe’s comments reflect findings of an investigation, published by The Australian Financial Review this week, that found 45 per cent of the nation’s land mass was now covered by a native title determination, and the regime had generated billions of dollars of income for a few groups.

But fewer than 9 per cent of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are members of a native title corporation, and only half of the 268 registered native title corporations reported any income in 2022.

The investigation also found federal investment funds designed to support people without native title continue to underperform, potentially costing Indigenous people up to $1 billion over 15 years due to poor management.

Mr Lowe – a Gunditjmara Djabwurrung man from the Maar Nation of south-western Victoria and chief executive of the Eastern Maar Aboriginal Corporation –also said he wanted to see native title laws overhauled to stop miners and environmental NGOs pursuing their own interests by using disgruntled groups or individuals to undermine the official native title, PBC.

“These bodies will say they are seeking to uphold ‘free prior and informed consent’ and ‘self-determination’ when engaging with us, while actively avoiding dealing with our representative organisations, and instead, dealing with splinter groups or individuals,” he said.

“These divisive practices create divisions or worsen existing divisions within our groups, undermining the credibility of our people and representative organisations we create to represent ourselves.

“There will always be dissenting voices. Governance systems, black or white, never completely agree with each other.”

In arguing for base PBC funding, Mr Lowe said after the failure of the Voice referendum, they represented “our vehicles for self-determination and our voices, which are many and strong”. He called on the Albanese government to establish a fund to provide an annual appropriation.

“Revenue for this fund should come from all Australian governments and proponents dealing with PBCs,” he said, adding that creating such a fund was recommended by the parliamentary inquiry into the destruction of the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge by mining giant Rio Tinto.

“The government response to the inquiry’s recommendation was that they ‘agreed in principle’, but we are yet to see this implemented,” he said.

The Victorian government provides an annual appropriation of $500,000 for Registered Aboriginal Parties (RAPs) under the state’s heritage act, which has helped the parties build capability.

“The smallest of the 11 Victorian RAPs has a turnover of over $7 million per annum, much of which comes from trading activities, and it employs dozens of traditional owners and other regional community members.

“This demonstrates with the right policy settings and even a basic funding investment, PBCs can thrive and drive not only self-determination but also regional economic development.”

Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus this week announced an inquiry into inequality, unfairness and weaknesses in native title laws to be conducted by the Australian Law Reform Commission and finished by December 2025.

The review will look into the limitations on native title land being used for economic development and how to support consensus among traditional owners to pursue development opportunities. This includes whether the Native Title Act appropriately provides for new and emerging industries.