ACT residents need have no fear about their residential or commercial leases being claimed under indigenous title, the ACT Attorney-General, Terry Connolly, said yesterday.
He was responding to statements by his Opposition counterpart, Gary Humphries, and the Queensland Premier, Wayne Goss, about the consequences of a claim by the Wik people in Cape York.
The Wik people have asserted that the Queensland Government is in breach of trust under a common law made clear in an English case in 1977 that said governments could be liable for breaches of duty to indigenous people if they were obliged to act on behalf of or in their interests.
Mr Humphries said that might mean that leasehold in the ACT was not secure and he called on the ACT Government to legislate to make the titles secure.
Mr Connolly said there had been no Aboriginal trust land in the ACT, with perhaps the exception of Wreck Bay in the Jervis Bay territory, so the 1977 English case did not apply.
Further the 1911 creation of the Federal Territory would have extinguished indigenous title under the Mabo decision. He accused the Liberal Party of double standards saying that if the Government had moved to legislate to extinguish any one else’s property right or right to sue under common law, the Liberal Party, which treasured common-law rights, would have kicked up a great fuss. But they were happy to see Aboriginal rights extinguished.
Mr Humphries said that if the Government was so sure that there was no possibility of a successful indigenous claim why not make it clear with legislation? The issue was frightening a lot of people. Why not settle it with legislation?