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Thank you for the opportunity to make submissions to the Ministerial Inquiry to identify strategies to increase resource exploration in Western Australia - the Bowler Inquiry. Enclosed is a copy of my submission which contains several recommendations.

Native title is now well established in Australian law. The native title system was set up in 1994 under the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (the Native Title Act). It is for gaining recognition and protection of native title, and for resolving native title matters. It has been successfully used in many parts of the country.

In 1863 the area now known as the Northern Territory came under the control of South Australia. By 1903 the whole area was leased to non-Indigenous people. As there were few non-Indigenous women, relationships between the Indigenous women and non-Indigenous men were relatively common. The consequence was a growing population of children of mixed descent who were usually cared for by their mothers within the Aboriginal community.

The most distressing aspect about the level of juvenile justice intrusion in the lives of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is the fact that entry into the system is usually the start of a long career of incarceration for many (SNAICC submission 309 page 28).

It is common in the legal commentary to refer to child sterilisation as if it is a gender neutral issue, [1] but the overwhelming majority of sterilisations and certainly all the cases heard by relevant Australian courts and tribunals, involve female children with intellectual disabilities. There is social problem at the centre of the debate about sterilisation.

Seventy-two Prescribed Bodies Corporate (PBCs) have been registered as Registered Native Title Bodies Corporate to either hold native title rights on trust for, or to act as the agent of, native title holders.[3]

Adoption is the transfer, generally by order of a court, of all parental rights and obligations from the natural parent(s) to the adoptive parent(s). In Australia, legal adoption is relatively recent. It was first introduced in 1928 in Victoria, for example. Until very recently adoption involved near-total secrecy, partly in deference to the desire of adoptive parents to present the child as their own and partly because of the stigma of illegitimacy which typically attached to adopted children.

The position of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner was established within the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission in 1993 to carry out the following functions:

Amended by Aborigines Protection Amending Act 1915 (NSW) Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act 1918 (NSW) Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act 1936 (NSW) Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act 1940 (NSW) Aborigines Protection (Amendment) Act 1943 (NSW) Repealed by Aborigines Welfare Ordinance 1954 (Cth).

One is irresistibly reminded of the likening of bureaucratic activity to  the sex life of elephants: much trumpeting, a lot of activity at high level  and no outcome for three years.

3.1 Introduction 3.2 Australia's human rights obligations for workers with family and carer responsibilities 3.3 Limitations of federal discrimination law 3.4 The need for law reform 3.5 Conclusion

In accordance with statutory duties, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner reports to Parliament each year on the enjoyment and exercise of the human rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This includes a requirement to report on the operation of the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) and its impact on the human rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait ...

In 1989 the Association for the Support of Psychiatric Services (ASPS) was established in Warrnambool after a public meeting identified the need for a service to support individuals with a mental illness and their carers. This need was also identified in a study of carers funded by the National Mental Health Funding Scheme and carried out by Lowndes and Harrison in 1993. The report also overwhelmingly identified a desperate need for a specific service to provide support for carers.