BRISBANE — The Queensland Government has clarified its position on native title claims after briefly entering what experts described as “the contest-everything era”, before remembering it also enjoys finishing things.
The updated stance is that each claim will be assessed individually, which analysts say is a radical return to the original concept of “doing your job”. The previous approach, sources say, was designed to provide certainty, mainly to lawyers.
In a statement, an official spokesperson said the government remains committed to “balance”. “We support Traditional Owners and industry stakeholders equally” the spokesperson said. “That’s why everyone will now wait the same amount of time.”
The shift reportedly occurred after internal modelling revealed that contesting everything would require: more staff, more budget, more court time and more emotional resilience than any public service unit has had since the great printer outage of 2019.
Traditional Owners said the backflip was welcome, though exhausting. “We’re getting fit from all these policy sprints,” one community member said. “Every time we get close, they move the finish line and call it ‘reform’.”
The government confirmed a new “streamlined pathway” will be created to prevent further delays, featuring a dashboard, a hotline, and a disclaimer that the dashboard is “for transparency only, not accuracy”.
Discover more from I-News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
