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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-04-01 Daily Xml
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Rangelea Court Judgement

The Hon. F. PANGALLO (15:23): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs a question about the Rangelea court judgement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. F. PANGALLO: Native title holders in South Australia's Flinders Ranges should soon have clarity on how tens of millions of dollars in uranium royalties have been allocated over many years, following a ruling of the Full Court of the Supreme Court last Friday. The Adnyamathanha Traditional Lands Association (ATLA) has been locked in a years-long legal battle with three of its members for access to the financial statements of a master trust used to distribute uranium mining royalties.

The master trust has been controlled by a company called Rangelea Holdings, which is run by former ATLA chief executive Vince Coulthard, who is very well known to the minister. In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that ATLA members could access the trust's financial documents and, further, that an inspector be appointed to report on the activities of Rangelea.

Rangelea quickly lodged an appeal, which was dismissed last Friday, with the court finding the native title holders were beneficiaries of the trust and had statutory rights to access documents and records. It also found there was proper basis for the appointment of an inspector. The legal case is widely seen as a national bellwether concerning Aboriginal trustee companies, where hundreds of millions of dollars are held in account without proper disclosure, transparency or any real benefit to the ostensible beneficiaries. My questions to the minister are:

1. What is the government's view of the adverse judgement in the Court of Appeal concerning Mr Coulthard?

2. On the back of this judgement, will the government now support one of the key recommendations of the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee's final report into Aboriginal governance for South Australia's Trustee Act to be amended in a manner similar to what has taken place in Western Australia to provide greater transparency and disclosure to beneficiaries?

3. In rejecting the standing committee's recommendations you said at the time:

The Attorney-General's Department is not aware of concerns with the management of trusts, generally, within this category so as to suggest a need for broadly applicable legislative change at this time.

Have you now changed your view on the back of the Rangelea judgement?

4. How do you respond to accusations from various Indigenous groups and elders that reluctance to amend this legislation is protecting certain individuals?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (15:26): I thank the honourable member for his question. I will point out, though, if the honourable member thinks that anything that is done in the state affects prescribed body corporates under the Native Title Act it is a mistaken belief.

Prescribed body corporates under the Native Title Act which are required to be registered under the CATSIA legislation, the Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act 2006, are not governed by state law. The whole native title scheme, in fact, is not governed by state law. It is a creature of post Mabo—I think 1993 the initial native title laws passed in the federal parliament, with subsequent amendments by the federal parliament. Wholly and entirely the regulation of native title is a matter for commonwealth law.

In relation to corporations established under native title, prescribed body corporates under the Native Title Act once again are required under commonwealth law to be governed by that Corporations (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) Act, which is overseen by ORIC, the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations. So anything that the state might or could amend has no effect on native title. They are wholly governed by federal laws.

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