The Wire

If mainstream media reports are to be believed, the Prime Minister has received unmitigated support from Indigenous Australians in Hopevale this week – especially on the issue of individual land tenure agreements on Indigenous community land. The PM couldn’t have bought better publicity than the photo on yesterday’s Australian newspaper, which featured didjeridoo player 91-year-old Peter Costello greeting him with a hug in the North Queensland heat. And the Mayor of the former Lutheran mission at Hopevale, Greg McLean, wanted to talk about introducing individual 99-year leases on community-owned land, which he believes would promote home ownership. It’s been pitched as the answer to Indigenous homelessness, and has the qualified support of the Government’s Indigenous Welfare Advisor, Noel Pearson. But what does the plan mean, and what are the pitfalls that have the critics so concerned? James Cook University’s Native Title Studies Centre Director, Associate Professor Craig Jones gives us the lowdown on land tenure in everyday language.