Mr Coe, speaking on the Ten Network’s program, üMeet the Press,@ said the High Court had not given sufficient clarity to native title.
He thought test cases could be run in the High Court. It was scaremongering to say they would take years to resolve.
“”If people acknowledged that Aboriginal people have a right to land and resources that attach to land, and first asked the consent of the owners of the land as to how that land should be used, you’d find that most Aboriginal groups would agree to some form of land usage and mining by non-Aboriginal people,” he said.
But Aboriginal title-holders had the right to veto projects.
He said the title issue was fundamental to the republican issue. There was no title to transfer to a republican government.
“”We are still a colonised captive people and until they meet with us and treat us as equals and go through the process of decolonisation they have no title to transfer,” he said.
The United Nations should intervene.
He said this was a growing opinion among Aborigines, but would not say if it was a majority opinion.
The executive director of the Australian Mining Industry Council, Lachlan McIntosh, said Aboriginal people already had ownership and claim to about 20 per cent of Australia _ the size of NSW and Victoria combined.
Mabo should be used to clear up out-standing issues and to get on with economic development.
The uncertainty was causing a fall in investment.
Aboriginal people wanted development. $10 million had been spent in legal fees already trying to work out who had title. The matter should be cleared up quickly.
Questions for compensation had to be met by the whole nation. The Government already got more from the surplus between revenue and costs from the mining industry. Everyone benefited from economic development. It brought the wealth that enabled all to have a better standard of living and allowed us to pay the billion dollars already paid each year to Aboriginal people.