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Friday 23 April 2004, Media Release

NEW GUIDELINES ON COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT

The New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council has moved to ensure greater scrutiny of commercial development proposals on Aboriginal land.

The Council will introduce new policy guidelines to tighten the assessment process by NSWALC of applications received under Section 40 of the Aboriginal Land Rights Act for commercial property developments.

The new policy guidelines, which will take effect immediately, were announced today by the NSWALC Administrator, Mr Murray Chapman.

"The new guidelines are designed to impose far more rigour into the assessment process by NSWALC of applications for commercial developments on Aboriginal land," Mr Chapman said.

"They are designed to protect the interests of all parties, but particularly those of Local Aboriginal Land Council members," he added.

Section 40D of the NSW Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 requires state land council approval before local land council property can be sold or mortgaged.

NSWALC Chief Executive, Mr. William Johnstone, said this presented a range of complex and, often controversial, issues for all parties.

"Debate around Section 40D development applications have long been contentious and have, to date, been treated in an ad hoc fashion," he said.

"Mr Chapman and I have been working over recent months to develop a framework for development approvals and disposal of land that maximises the input from, and commercial returns to, Aboriginal land council members.

"We are not satisfied the current policy guidelines provide for this."

Mr Chapman and Mr Johnstone said the new policy guidelines, which would apply to all current and future applications, would ensure that applicants provided NSWALC with a more comprehensive overview of proposals to better inform the assessment process.

This would include a community business plan and supporting financial projections with detailed explanations of proposed sales and transactions.

These would include the commercial structure of the venture, the reasons driving the development proposals, the proposed application of any financial proceeds and their consistency with the community business plan.

The guidelines had been adopted as the first step in the development of a comprehensive policy document on such applications. The policy document would be released in coming months.

"We have decided to release these guidelines to send a clear signal to all parties that we intend to ensure the benefits of commercial developments on Aboriginal land flow to those it was designed to assist, current and future generations of Aboriginal people in NSW," they said.