Mr Campbell asked the Minister representing the Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, upon notice, on 20 November 1997:

(1) Was the indigenous Land Fund set up to acquire land for Aboriginal persons who could not prove an association with their land.

(2) (a) Are resources being provided from the Indigenous Land Fund to Aboriginal persons who have lodged extant land claims; (b) if so, is this consistent with the objectives of and requirements of the Indigenous Land Fund.

Dr Wooldridge —The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission has provided the following information in response to the honourable member's question:

(1) No. The preamble to the Land Fund and Indigenous Land Corporation (ATSIC Amendment) Act 1995 states that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Fund was established to help redress the dispossession of Aboriginal persons and Torres Strait Islanders. Section 191B of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989 provides that the purposes of the Indigenous Land Corporation are to assist Aboriginal persons and Torres Strait Islanders to acquire and to manage land so as to provide economic, environmental, social or cultural benefits for Aboriginal persons and Torres Strait Islanders.

Neither the preamble nor the substantive legislative provision cited above make inability to "prove"

association with a particular area of land a qualification for land acquisition using monies sourced from the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Land Fund. Indeed, the Indigenous Land Corporation's National Indigenous Land Strategy states (page 5) that, wherever possible, the Indigenous Land Corporation will aim to ensure that traditional owners (or people with traditional links to the land) become the holders of the relevant title. That Strategy was tabled in the House of Representatives in March 1997 as required by Section 191N(7) of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission Act 1989.

(2) (a) Yes. While the Indigenous Land Corporation's policy is flexible and decisions on individual proposals are made after assessment of those proposals against the criteria set down in the National Indigenous Land Strategy, the Corporation' s Strategy (page 5) states, as a general proposition, that "the ILC will give priority to land where a native title claim has not been lodged, and where it is unlikely that a native title claim would be successful. Consideration will also be given to other land fights mechanisms available to assist indigenous people to regain their land."

A successful native title claim may not, however, deliver to the successful claimants an interest approaching full, beneficial ownership of land (as, for example, in the case of pastoral leases, where a determination of native title fights and interests will be subject to the fights of the pastoral lessee). Their land needs will, in such cases, still need to be addressed and access to resources from the Aboriginal and Tortes Strait Islander Land Fund is a legitimate avenue for addressing those needs. Moreover, land of especial cultural significance to a particular group of claimants may not be claimable at common law or under the Native Title Act 1993 (because, for example, the land is freehold). Access to the Land Fund also provides these claimants with a legitimate avenue for addressing their land needs.

(b) Yes.