ABSTRACT
It was against the background of this flawed debate that the Australian Government began implementing its Indigenous land tenure reforms. It has ultimately introduced three sets of reforms in the period since 2006. Two are specific to Aboriginal land in the Northern Territory, while the third also affects housing in larger communities on Indigenous land in other jurisdictions. Further to this, and partly in response to pressure from the Australian Government, several state governments have introduced changes to their statutory land rights schemes. The Queensland Government has made a number of amendments to make it easier to grant leases over Indigenous land in that state,1 and has more recently enacted legislation that enables certain areas of Indigenous land to be divided up and converted to ordinary freehold. The South Australian Government has rewritten the legislation for one of its schemes.2 That legislation was very old and it was updated for several reasons, including a desire to make it easier to grant leases and other interests.3 Western Australia does not have statutory land rights as such, but has been investigating options for land tenure reform on its Aboriginal Lands Trust estate.4
