Rirratjingu Aboriginal Corporation v Northern Land Council [2015] FCA 36

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Rirratjingu Aboriginal Corporation v Northern Land Council [2015] FCA 36 Citation: Rirratjingu Aboriginal Corporation v Northern Land Council [2015] FCA 36

Parties: RIRRATJINGU ABORIGINAL CORPORATION AND OTHERS v NORTHERN LAND COUNCIL AND OTHERS

File number: NTD 31 of 2014

Judge: MANSFIELD J

Date of judgment: 4 February 2015

Catchwords: LAND RIGHTS – Land Council – responsibility of Land Council under s 35(4) of Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 (Cth) where royalties and like payments paid to Land Council on behalf of traditional Aboriginal owners – where three separate clans of traditional Aboriginal owners over leased area – whether Land Council holds payments on trust under which it has no role or power to determine proportion of payment payable to each clan – held that Land Council has role of deciding how payments should be distributed to or on behalf of traditional Aboriginal owners ADMINISTRATIVE LAW – Administrative Decisions (Judicial Review) Act 1976 (Cth) – Land Council in receipt of royalty and like payments received under s 35(4) of Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976 (Cth) – whether Land Council had failed to make a lawful decision as required by s 35(4) for distribution of past payments – whether Land Council could no longer make a decision under s 35(4) for distribution of current payments by reason of alleged ostensible bias where one recipient of earlier distribution had commenced proceedings against Land Council alleging that its earlier decisions were unlawful and it should account to that recipient for a greater amount from earlier distributions