7 August, 2015
The Australian Government recently released a white paper entitled Our North, Our Future: White Paper on Developing Northern Australia.
The White Paper identifies land reform as a key aspect of the future development of Northern Australia, especially given that pastoral leases and other forms of Crown tenure constitute approximately 75 percent of Northern Australia's land mass. Such reform is considered by the Australian Government to be capable of opening up one quarter of Northern Australia for new development opportunities.
The Northern Australia vision will be undertaken over many years, and we foresee significant foreign investment of a global scale – especially in the agricultural sector – in this area.
We will monitor the Northern Australia Strategic Partnership's and each government's efforts to achieve the vision for Northern Australia. To that end, this paper is intended to be an introduction to a series of papers on issues associated with this vision.
Our next paper will address land tenure, native title and Indigenous tenure options, in the context of achieving the national vision set out in the White Paper.
For further information, please contact:
Philip Christensen, Partner, Baker & McKenzie
philip.christensen@bakermckenzie.com
