'It unnerved us': John Howard admits he mishandled the High Court's Wik decision
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The High Court ruled that native title and pastoral leases could co-exist, but the rights of pastoralists would prevail in the event of inconsistency with rights under native title.
The National Archives of Australia today released the 1996 and 1997 cabinet papers, which reveal the considerable amount of time Mr Howard’s government spent discussing the High Court’s decision.
“The Wik decision left us confused. When the High Court said … they could coexist that created a problem and I don’t think I handled the next six months all that well. I wanted to get everybody together but it went on too long. It looked like the government was drifting,” Mr Howard said.
“There were stories of disagreements inside the government. It just unnerved us because we thought there was no problem and it turned out there was and we had to amend the Native Title Act. It was quite a difficult issue. We were dealing with two of our biggest constituents – farmers and miners.”
After two long parliamentary debates in late 1997 and early 1998, Federal Parliament passed 293 amendments to the Native Title Act.
Article source: http://smh.com.au/business/retail/solomon-lew-seeks-myers-share-register-20170927-gypqnt.html
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