Nigel Scullion (NT, Country Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and the Minister for Disability Reform, upon notice, on 22 November 2012:

(1) Can the Minister provide an explanation as to how the distribution of royalty equivalents operates under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976, in particular:

(a) which bodies are responsible for the distribution of royalty payments;

(b) which bodies are responsible for investing royalty funds, given that some royalty payments are withheld and invested rather than distributed directly to traditional owners;

(c) what probity arrangements are in place to protect the invested funds; and

(d) how traditional owners are kept fully informed about the status of the royalties invested on their behalf.

(2) Given that there are parallels to superannuation, where a proportion of a person's income is invested on their behalf, are there any similar protections in place for traditional owners in terms of the investment of their royalties.

Chris Evans (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs and the Minister for Disability Reform provides the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1) (a) Under the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Land Rights Act),

the Commonwealth credits to the Aboriginals Benefit Account amounts equal to royalties received by the Northern Territory or Commonwealth Governments in respect of mining on Aboriginal land together with certain amounts in relation to mining carried out on Aboriginal land by or on behalf of the Commonwealth, the Northern Territory or an Authority (section 63 of the Land Rights Act). Thirty per cent of this amount is paid to the relevant Land Council (section 64 of the Land Rights Act) and must in turn be paid, within six months of its receipt by the Land Council, to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations whose members live in, or are the traditional owners of, the area affected by those mining operations, in such proportions as the Land Council determines (section 35 of the Land Rights Act).

(b) The Land Rights Act requires that the relevant Land Council must hold the amounts in trust and invest them until they are distributed to relevant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations (section 35 of the Land Rights Act). In certain circumstances, the Land Council must continue to hold the amounts in trust beyond the six month period after which they were received by the Land Council (section 35 of the Land Rights Act).

(c) A Land Council is required to invest amounts held in trust in investments of the kind authorised by section 39 of the Financial Management and Accountability Act 1997 (section 35 of the Land Rights Act).

(d) Where a Land Council holds a royalty amount in trust at the end of a financial year the Land Council must include details in its annual report of the amount paid to the Land Council and the financial year in which the amount was paid, the amount held in trust and the mining operation to which the amount relates (section 37 of the Land Rights Act).

(2) See 1(c) above.