A joint media release by the Northern, Central, Tiwi and Anindilyakwa Aboriginal Land Councils issued earlier today, 12 March 2025 The Northern Territory’s four land councils have united in calling for the Territory Coordinator Bill to be dumped. The Bill excludes Aboriginal people from involvement in development decisions on their traditional lands and prevents them [...]
COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA v YUNUPINGU (ON BEHALF OF THE GUMATJCLAN OR ESTATE GROUP) & ORS 2025 HCA 6 The following is a summary of the landmark native title compensation case that was provided by the High Court of Australia at 10am this morning. The 175 pages of the complete judgement of the Full bench of [...]
Part Two – Michael Murphy, the Voldemort clause, the Police Union & the NT ICAC This is Part Two of an article examining recent events involving the NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy, the NT ICAC, the NT government and the NT Police Association. You can read Part One here. Operation Apollo & The Voldemort clause [...]
Bob Gosford reports from Darwin As I noted earlier this year, 2024 will be a big year for elections. Yesterday’s issue of the writ kicked off the NT election on Saturday 24 August that will have ramifications for both major parties at a national level – for Labor to retain its electoral dominance; for the [...]
Part 3: Munkara v Santos NA Barossa Pty Ltd (No 3) Not the Tiwi Island Crocodile called "Elvis". But a nice one nonetheless ... At paragraph 312 of Justice Natalie Charlesworth’s decision in Munkara v Santos NA Barossa Pty Ltd (No 3) witness Tony Pilakui said in his statement that he disputed the truth of [...]
Part Two: … and a crocodile called Elvis. Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher. Darwin, February 2024 By Bob Gosford In the first part of this seriesI looked at the recent Federal Court decision of Justice Charlesworth in Munkara v Santos NA Barossa Pty Ltd (No 3) [2024] (Munkara) and briefly explored the judicial history of principles [...]
Part One: Why Alderson v Northern Land Council (still) rules after forty years. Tiwi lead applicant Simon Munkara By Bob Gosford After two weeks of hearings in late December, in mid-January 2024 Justice Charlesworth of the Federal Court of Australia delivered her 258-page demolition of the application for a permanent injunction by three Tiwi Island [...]
Part One: The facts mate, and only the facts Novelty in itself has attractions, but when with novelty, beauty and elegance are combined, the attractions are augmented beyond measure ….John Gould, The Birds of Australia, 7 volumes, 1840 to 1848. John Gould was describing the Gouldian Finch, Amadina gouldiae, shortly after his wife and collaborator [...]
2024 will be a big year for elections, with some estimates stating that half (really?) the world population will get the opportunity to vote in 2024. Time magazine reckons that 64 countries—and the European Union—will conduct national elections this year with elections in Taiwan, Bangladesh, Russia and Ukraine all must-watch events for a variety of [...]
A guest post by Nathan Evans* The Northern Territory Homelands Movement began in the 1970s and was a visible demonstration of Aboriginal people across the Northern Territory asserting their rights to determine their lives on their traditional lands. When first established, these homelands received almost no government services. The construction of physical infrastructure was left [...]
