Northern Territory Consolidated Acts

MISCELLANEOUS ACTS AMENDMENT (ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY LIVING AREAS) ACT 1989 - SECT 3

The purpose of this Act is to give effect to the Memorandum of Agreement between the Commonwealth and the Northern Territory on the granting of Community Living Areas in Northern Territory Pastoral Districts, signed on 7 September 1989 and a copy of which is printed in the Schedule.

16     Aboriginal association may convert certain interests in land to community living area

    (1)     This section applies to an association of Aboriginals incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act or the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006 (Cth) which:

        (a)     is the registered proprietor under the Land Title Act of an estate in fee simple of land in the Territory;

        (b)     is the lessee of a parcel of land under the Special Purposes Leases Act 1953 ; or

        (c)     is the lessee under the Crown Lands Act 1992 of a Crown lease for a term of years.

    (2)     An association to which this section applies may, in writing, apply to the Minister to have its interest in the relevant land converted to an estate in fee simple for the purposes of an Aboriginal community living area to be held on the same terms and conditions and subject to the same reservations and restrictions that would apply if the land were an excision from a pastoral lease granted to the association in pursuance of a successful application under Part 8 of the Pastoral Land Act 1992 .

    (3)     The Minister may, in his discretion, accept an application under subsection (2) or reject it.

    (4)     If the Minister accepts an application under subsection (2) and is satisfied that any charges, rates, rent, or encumbrances of any kind relating to the land have been paid or discharged and any covenants relating to the land have been kept, he or she shall, by notice in the Gazette , indicate acceptance of the application, and upon publication of the notice and by virtue of this subsection the same consequences flow in relation to the land as if the notice of acceptance were a notice of acquisition (within the meaning of the Lands Acquisition Act 1978 ) of land to be excised from a pastoral lease published in pursuance of section 46(1A) of that Act.