This Act creates a licensing and regulatory system for petroleum exploration, appraisal and production in the Territory: who may hold interests, how interests are granted, transferred or cancelled, and the technical, environmental and reporting rules holders must follow (objective: s3; licences/permissions: Parts II–III). It also sets criminal penalties,...

The Act creates a statutory system for granting and regulating mineral titles over Territory land, giving title holders exclusive exploration and mining rights in defined areas while imposing reporting, compensation, security and rehabilitation obligations. It centralises decision making with the Minister (and delegated officers), governs application,...

This Act prescribes time limits for most civil claims in the Northern Territory, who must sue within them, and when those limits can be paused or extended. It matters because most tort/contract claims have short windows (and defamation, deeds, judgments, special recovery rules vary), courts can toll or extend time for disability, fraud, mistake or justice,...

The Act vests ownership of most minerals in the Northern Territory in the Commonwealth and requires the Commonwealth to compensate prior holders, but claimants face strict procedural limits (including a 31 Dec 1954 written claim deadline for surface/subsurface minerals and short court timeframes). The Administrator can authorise entry, testing and...

This law creates a comprehensive regulatory system for fishing, aquaculture, processing and sale of aquatic life in the Northern Territory by requiring licences/permits, vessel registration, enforceable management plans and wide compliance and enforcement powers. It establishes a Director, fisheries officers/inspectors and advisory bodies to run the system....

This Act is the Northern Territory’s rule‑book for reading, applying and managing laws and subordinate instruments: it standardises interpretation, commencement, service, delegation, penalties, publication and administrative allocation. It affects Ministers and agencies who administer laws, courts and tribunals that apply them, and businesses and...

Mechanically, this Act creates a national, uniform work health and safety regime that places a primary duty on persons conducting a business or undertaking (PCBUs) to ensure health and safety so far as "reasonably practicable", and establishes worker protections (consultation, health and safety representatives, committees), enforcement powers (inspectors,...

The Act sets the rules for managing, selling, leasing, licensing, reserving and resuming Crown land in the Northern Territory, and for charging purchase prices, rent, licence fees and royalties. It creates processes for grants, leases, easements, resumptions and compensation, and administrative review. It affects purchasers, lessees, licensees, local...

This law overhauls who can be sued and how personal‑injury damages are assessed: it creates immunities for volunteers, donors and Good Samaritans, new duties and presumptions holding institutions accountable for child abuse, capped and tariffed awards for non‑pecuniary loss and certain offender claims, and fixed rules on contributory negligence and periodic...

The Act creates the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory (replacing the prior Commonwealth era court), preserves existing proceedings and records, and sets the Court’s jurisdiction, appellate structure, and operational rules. It governs appointment, tenure and remuneration of judges and registrars, authorises electronic documents and court‑directed...

The Act creates a statutory scheme to secure timely payments in construction by defining covered contracts, implying minimum payment/variation/retention rules and banning pay‑when‑paid clauses. It establishes a fast, paper‑based adjudication process with strict short timeframes and registered adjudicators, plus enforcement tools (work suspension and court...

This Act sets how courts sentence adults in the Territory: it defines sentencing goals (punishment, rehabilitation, deterrence, denunciation, protection), prescribes matters courts must consider, and creates a menu of punishments and non custodial orders (fines, community correction orders, intensive community orders, suspended sentences, treatment orders)....

This Act modernises how land rights are created, transferred and enforced. It requires most land dispositions to be in writing, abolishes certain old feudal estates (like entails and escheat), and sets detailed rules for mortgages, sale and foreclosure, receivers, and the modification or extinguishment of easements and covenants. It affects landowners,...

This Act restructures tort law allocation of liability and recovery: causes of action generally survive for estates (with limits), multiple wrongdoers can be sued and ordered to contribute, and courts apportion damages for contributory negligence. It abolishes common employment and limits employee indemnity, recognizes claims for mental shock by relatives,...

Establishes a comprehensive youth‑justice framework for people under 18, replacing the Juvenile Justice Act 1983. Mechanically it sets statutory principles for youth treatment, protections in police interviews and searches, a menu of sentencing options with age‑based caps, detention‑centre rules and detention‑related offences, inter‑jurisdiction transfer...

This Act sets out what conduct is a criminal offence across a wide range of areas (assault, kidnapping, corruption, electoral offences, piracy, identity crime, money‑laundering, intimate‑image offences, sexual servitude, etc.), defines key terms and mental elements, and prescribes penalties and procedural rules. It affects anyone in the Territory — members...

The Act gives the Northern Territory civil powers to trace, restrain and forfeit property tied to serious crime, and to make monetary declarations for unexplained wealth, criminal benefit or crime‑used assets. It empowers police, the DPP and courts with investigative, freezing and seizure tools, and obliges financial institutions and registrars to assist....

The Act overhauls defamation procedure: plaintiffs must show "serious harm" and serve a written concerns notice before suing, while publishers get formal offer‑to‑amend routes. It creates tailored exemptions and a separate defence for digital intermediaries but requires accessible complaints processes and timely access‑prevention steps. Courts gain powers...

This Act implements the Commonwealth/NSW/Victoria uniform evidence rules for Territory courts. It prescribes who may give or be compelled to give evidence, how witnesses are questioned, when hearsay or documents are admissible, privilege rules, identification procedures and protections for vulnerable witnesses. It affects all participants in Territory court...

The Act creates a statutory, no‑fault motor accident compensation scheme in the Northern Territory, replacing most common‑law claims. The Motor Accidents (Compensation) Commission pays benefits from a central Fund — weekly loss‑of‑earnings, lump‑sum impairment, medical/rehab, attendant care and death benefits — subject to time limits, internal review and...

This law creates a written permit regime controlling entry to Aboriginal land, certain roads bordered by it, and adjoining seas, vesting primary permit authority in Land Councils and traditional owners while giving the Administrator and Ministers limited administrative backstops. It affects visitors, fishers, contractors, businesses, Land...

The Act creates a two‑step permit/licence regime for energy pipelines—short‑term survey permits then longer licences to build, operate and maintain—centred on broad Ministerial discretion to grant, condition, vary or cancel rights. It affects applicants, licensees, landowners, occupiers, native title claimants, workers and anyone near pipelines, imposing...

The Act vests water in the Territory and creates a comprehensive licensing, permitting and enforcement regime for taking, using, drilling into and disposing of water, with criminal offences for pollution and special controls for hydraulic fracturing. It also enables water allocation planning including an Aboriginal water reserve and trading of entitlements....

This Act makes it unlawful in the Northern Territory to discriminate, sexually harass, victimise or incite hatred based on listed personal attributes across education, work, accommodation, services and public administration. It imposes a positive, proportionate duty on covered persons to prevent prohibited conduct, creates a Commissioner‑led complaint,...

The Act creates a civil cause of action where a person’s death is caused by another’s wrongful act, neglect or default, allowing the estate (usually the personal representative) to sue on behalf of specified family members. It centralises recovery in a single action and directs the court to determine compensation and its division among beneficiaries. It...

This Act supplements the Territory’s uniform evidence law to create procedures for vulnerable witnesses, recorded evidence, confidential counselling communications, certified scientific evidence, and cross‑jurisdictional audiovisual links. It governs courts, prosecutors, police/authorised interviewers, defendants, counsellors, reporting scientists and...

This Act adopts the national Health Practitioner Regulation Law into Northern Territory law, making the Territory subject to that national framework while mapping national terms to Territory institutions and excluding certain Territory Acts. It designates the NT Civil and Administrative Tribunal as the decision maker and allows the Administrator to make...

This Act ratifies and gives legal effect to the McArthur River Project Agreement, granting Mount Isa Mines long term mining tenures, validating operational approvals (including conversion to open‑cut), and preserving project‑specific fiscal and procedural concessions. It obliges the Northern Territory to implement parts of the Agreement (infrastructure,...