ABSTRACT
Noel Pearson is known to some as the 'father of native title' because of his prominent role in negotiating the form and substance of the original Native Title Act. This chapter examines the historical background issues related to the establishment of the Native Title Act 1994 and establish how and why the Act was destined for failure from the beginning. It considers the complexity and excessive legalise that obfuscates the Native Title Act 1994. The chapter demonstrates the duplicity and hypocrisy of successive Labor administrations (state and federal) in their dealings with Indigenous Australians. It is primarily because of Labor’s duplicity and hypocrisy that Indigenous people today find themselves no closer to land justice and subject to conservative Howard government policies that have taken us back to the days of assimilation. Finally, a question mark remains over the fact that Australian parliamentary and judicial systems are still unable to justify the legality of their acquisition of sovereignty over this land.
