New South Wales Consolidated Acts

ABORIGINAL LAND RIGHTS ACT 1983 - SECT 91

91 Changes on initiative of Minister

(1) The Minister may make an order under section 87 in relation to a Local Aboriginal Land Council area or a Local Aboriginal Land Council if the Minister is satisfied that the Council--

(a) has less than 50 voting members, or

(b) has less than 3% of the potential members who reside in its area, as determined from the most recent available Australian census data, or

(c) has a membership that is in significant decline, or

(d) has not, for a period of not less than 3 months, been able to elect the required number of Board members, or

(e) cannot pay its debts as and when they fall due, or

(f) has had qualified audits or has failed to provide complete financial statements for any 3 of the last 5 years, or

(g) has had an administrator appointed under this Act for any 3 of the last 5 years, or

(h) is the subject of a report by an investigator or administrator under this Act, the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council or the Local Aboriginal Land Council that has found that the Local Aboriginal Land Council has ceased to function, or

(i) has had an administrator appointed for a period of 6 months on one or more grounds, including the ground that the Local Aboriginal Land Council had been operating a community benefits scheme for the provision or acquisition of residential accommodation for Aboriginal persons in its area and the scheme continues to operate in contravention of the requirement for approval of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council under section 52A.

Note : Section 52A(1A) provides that the approval of the New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council is not required if the Local Aboriginal Land Council is a registered Aboriginal housing organisation (within the meaning of the Aboriginal Housing Act 1998 ) or a registered community housing provider (within the meaning of the Community Housing Providers National Law (NSW) ).

(2) The Minister may take action on a ground specified subsection (1)(a)-(f) on the basis of a report by the Registrar.

(3) The Minister may not make an order on a ground specified in subsection (1)--

(a) in the case of an order amalgamating one or more Local Aboriginal Land Councils--except with the consent of the Councils, or

(b) in the case of an order including the area of a dissolved Local Aboriginal Land Council in the area of one or more other Councils--except with the consent of those other Councils.