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Royal Commission into
Aboriginal Deaths in
Custody
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths
in Custody was established in 1989 following
public concern over the deaths of 99 Aboriginal
people in police custody and prisons between 1
January 1980 and 31 May 1989. Twenty-seven
of these deaths occurred in Queensland.
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2.2
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The Commission looked at the circumstances of
each death and the experience of Aboriginal
people through 200 years of contact with nonAboriginal society. This included close
examination of the social and historical factors
of colonisation and its range of impacts on the
lives of Aboriginal people.
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The Final Report of 1991 had many
recommendations that refer broadly or
specifically to how each government department
or agency should consult or negotiate
with Aboriginal people and communities
and to the need to be aware of, and to
apply, the relevant protocols when
doing so.
All these references are too
numerous to list. It is useful,
however, to review the following
key references:
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Many Aboriginal community representatives
have expressed concern that the Bill would
effectively extinguish Native Title Rights
conferred by the Mabo and Wik decisions
of the High Court.
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The Federal Government’s response to the Wik
decision, the 10 point plan, seeks to resolve the
uncertainty created by that decision and provide
clear guidance as to the current state of native
title law in Australia. The Native Title Amendment
Bill of 1997 was heavily amended in the Senate.
The House of Representatives rejected the Bill
in that form and debate is soon expected to
resume in the Senate.
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exist in only 15% of land in Queensland, as it
was assumed by all Governments that native title
was extinguished by the grant of a pastoral lease.
For this reason the Commonwealth Native Title Act
1993 provided important and substantial legal
and procedural rights to native title holders.
Since the Wik decision it is clear that native title
may exist on a larger proportion of the State,
and that the thousands of dealings in land
before that decision, made on the assumption
that native title was extinguished, may be invalid.
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Pr o t o c o l s f o r Co n s u l t a t i o n a n d Ne g o t i a t i o n w i t h Ab o r i g i n a l Pe o p l e