What it does
This Act validates, confirms and preserves certain legal effects of Crown acts and related arrangements in Western Australia as permitted by the Commonwealth Native Title Act 1993 (the NTA). Mechanically the Act does three distinct things.
First, it retrospectively validates past acts attributable to the State and takes those acts always to have been valid (s 5). It does the same for intermediate period acts done between 1 January 1994 and 23 December 1996 (s 12A). It also provides a statutory route to validate particular future State acts by agreement recorded as Indigenous Land Use Agreements on the Register of Indigenous Land Use Agreements (ss 12Q-12R).
Second, the Act specifies the legal consequences of that validation for native title, by reference to the NTA categorisation of acts (category A, B, C, D and the category‑specific intermediate period counterparts). It declares when validated acts extinguish native title (for example, category A non‑public works, s 6; category A public works on completion or where section 229(4)(a) NTA applies, s 7), when they extinguish to the extent of inconsistency (category B, s 8), and when the non‑extinguishment principle continues to apply (category C and D, s 9). Equivalent effects for intermediate period acts are set out in ss 12B-12E. The Act also confirms extinguishment effected by certain previous exclusive possession acts and partial extinguishment by certain non‑exclusive possession acts where those acts were done on or before 23 December 1996 (ss 12I-12M). Where these confirmation provisions apply they displace the Act’s general validation consequences for those specific acts (see ss 12I(2), 12J(2), 12M(3)).
Third, the Act sets out collateral rules that interact with those outcomes: preservation of reservations or other rights for Aboriginal peoples (ss 11, 12F, 12K, 12N); a statutory entitlement to compensation arising from validation or confirmation where the NTA entitles native title holders to compensation, with compensation payable by the State and to be determined in accordance with the principles in Division 5 of Part 2 of the NTA (see ss 12(1)-(3), 12G(1)-(3), 12P(1)-(3)); and specific notification obligations when the State has effected certain intermediate period acts under the Land Act framework (s 12H) or when certain non‑exclusive arrangements are implemented (s 12O).