Senator CRANE(9.52 a.m.) —I seek leave to have a paper I have prepared, Native title claims over freehold land and exclusive possession tenure in Western Australia , incorporated in Hansard . I believe I have the agreement of the other side to do this, to save time. I also seek leave to table a number of documents which I have circulated in the chamber: Claim over private freehold ; Freehold claims: Bremer Bay, Western Australia ; Exmouth claims: Western Australia ; and Kalgoorlie: exclusive possession 99-year leases .

Senator Bolkus —I have indicated that I have no problems with it. We are going through the paper to see what we have to respond to. In respect of the documents, I would like a bit longer before we give final approval for them to be tabled. We are still going through them at the moment. That is the ALP's position.

Senator Margetts —I would like a little time to go through them. I would like to make a short statement in relation to them. We have debated a number of times the fact that, currently, a native title claim over freehold land does not mean a thing. The way claims are put in basically means that a person has to do the search and work out after that where freehold exists. It is not the requirement of those with freehold; you do not have to defend it, as some people have suggested. It does not actually prove anything. Certainly, we will be looking through these documents. They might help if people actually read the claims and get some advice on what the claims mean, but they do not actually prove your argument at all.

Senator CRANE —I did this to avoid debate. These documents are claims, except for one, that have been accepted by the Native Title Tribunal. Many people under these claims have received letters and some of them are going through mediation. To say it does not affect them is not correct. I am not going to debate this. I have sought leave, to save time, to have a document incorporated and several others tabled. If that is not done I reserve my right to come in here and read every word. I seek leave to have the paper incorporated in Hansard .

Leave granted.

The document read as follows—

Native Title Claims over Freehold Land and Exclusive Possession Tenure in Western Australia

There are numerous examples of native title claims which have been accepted by the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) over freehold and exclusive possession leasehold tenure in Western Australia.

A number of these claims specifically include freehold granted after 1 January 1994 despite the fact that these grants were made as a result of land subdivisions subject to pre-existing larger freehold titles. There are several thousand titles of this type issued in WA each year.

All freehold in the South-West is subject of claims which means that, every time a subdivision occurs and a new freehold title is issued, that freehold is automatically under claim and the owners are parties to the claims process. All these claims will eventually have to be referred to the Federal Court as they will be unable to be resolved by mediation. This means that the freehold owners will be forced to defend their interests in court.

Invariably claims include freehold held by the state, government agencies and government trading enterprises. They also include freehold titles granted after 1 January 1994 even though these titles are created on land which had been previously private freehold and had been subdivided, or Crown freehold set aside as freehold land for many years, in some cases more than fifty.

There are over 40,000 such titles in the Perth metropolitan region alone. Every time one of these blocks of land is sold to a private party, it remains claimed and the private owner again becomes automatically a party to the native title claim process.

One example of this problem is the recent sale of homes in the North West town of Exmouth. The land involved was acquired by the Western Australian Government from pastoral leases in 1963 in an agreement between the State Government, the Commonwealth Government and the Government of the United States of America for the purposes of constructing the Exmouth tracking station and the town of Exmouth to house and provide services for US servicemen and other residents.

The land was subdivided in the 1960s for housing and servicing (road, amenities, community facilities).

As part of the agreement for returning land to the State in 1992, each lot was to be offered for public sale. Land was returned to the Western Australian Government, including freehold land held by the Commonwealth, and passed back into the Crown estate before being offered for sale.

94 Homes have been sold and new titles have been issued to the purchasers. These titles are now subject to a native title claim which has been accepted by the NNTT.

Another example of freehold being claimed in the South West region of Western Australia is where the holders of conditional purchase lease or a war service lease exercise their obligation to convert the lease to freehold. Since 1994 over 200 leases have been converted and the owners have been issued with freehold titles. All of these freehold titles are subject to accepted native title claims despite the State Government providing the NNTT with the details of the conversions.

Title holders have been receiving notices form the NNTT to attend mediation conferences. Some farmers have had to interrupt their harvesting activities to attend these conferences in the last 3 weeks.

There are also 33 freehold titles subject to multiple claims in the Bremer Bay Townsite in Western Australia. In this case the land had previously been subject to conditional purchase leases which the Crown acquired and developed as a residential subdivision. The land was sold in October 1995. The purchasers have all been advised by the NNTT that their titles are under claim and they are to attend mediation conferences.

This was done despite numerous submissions from the State Government seeking to have these titles excluded from the claim. Mediation has not been successful and now the title holders will be required to defend their title in the Federal Court. Some have deferred plans to build homes on the land because of the claims.

Prior to being subdivided and developed, this land was the subject of a conditional purchase lease which carries a legal right of conversion to freehold.

In addition to claims over freehold there are also claims over residential lease hold in various parts of the state. These are residential leases which have been granted with exclusive possession. One such example is the 99 year residential leasehold in Kalgoorlie which is under claim.

Prepared by Senator Winston Crane

Senator for Western Australia

5 December 1997

Senator CRANE —I seek leave to table the other documents.

Senator Bolkus —I would like to defer the decision on that for another half hour or so whilst we have a chance to look at them. On the face of it, there is probably no problem; it is just the normal thing to do.

The CHAIRMAN —At this stage, leave is not granted.