Evaluation of amendments to the Native Title Act 1993 made by the Native Title Legislation Amendment Act 2021

The applicant is the person or group of people authorised by a native title claim group to handle a native title claim on their behalf. The applicant can also have a role in representing the native title claim group in making agreements around areas where native title has been claimed.

The intention of the amendments in the Native Title Legislation Amendment Act 2021 (2021 Amendment Act) was to provide greater flexibility to claim groups around developing their own internal decision-making structures. The changes also sought to ensure the applicant is accountable to the broader claim group. To achieve this, Schedule 1 of the 2021 Amendment Act amended the Native Title Act 1993 to:

• allow the applicant to act by majority and make this the default position (the claim group can displace this default position by imposing alternative conditions on the applicant)
• allow the claim group to impose conditions on the authority of the applicant, and to require those conditions to be recorded on the Register of Native Title Claims (for example, a condition to require the applicant to get approval from the claim group before agreeing to a consent determination or discontinuing a claim)
• clarify the duties of the applicant to the claim group
• allow the composition of the applicant to be changed without a further authorisation process in certain circumstances, including where a member of the applicant is deceased, and
• allow the claim group to put in place succession-planning arrangements for individual members of the applicant as part of the authorisation process.