NSW parliament passes controversial changes to Indigenous land transfer laws

Changes to a law allowing the transfer of government land into Indigenous ownership have passed NSW parliament, creating barriers to land claims a peak body has described as "regression".

Aboriginal Land Councils can claim unused or unoccupied Crown land, or land held by the state government on behalf of the public, under the Aboriginal Land Rights Act.

The amendments enable the lands minister to retrospectively convert an invalid or defective lease on Crown land into valid one by marking it as in-use.

It is this new power that the NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) believes diminishes the original "intent" of the legislation.

"The minister can, by the stroke of a pen, make a decision that certain land claims are now not on the table," council chair Raymond Kelly said.

"That is a real regression."

Unresolved claims date back decades

The government first proposed the bill in March, deferring it for further community consultation and winding back some of the changes.

Lands and Property Minister Steve Kamper said at the time the amendment aimed to address "edge cases" in which community assets became claimable due to technical errors.

There are more than 43,000 unresolved land claims in the state, some dating back to the 1980s.

"We've been following the law to the letter and it is the law that is now taking a serious dent," Dr Kelly said.

He said it would now reduce the council's ability to dispute decisions made by the government.

"If we don't agree with the minister's take, it makes it more difficult for us to then put a position for the community forward."

Premier Chris Minns described the law as "hugely important," but said its "structure" needed to be altered.

"If the community land is transferred out of government ownership to other forms of ownership, either its use can be changed ... for example, from a tennis club to housing, or the rent can go up," Mr Minns said.

Club evicted after 'poorly worded legislation'

Paul Francis has managed the Love'n Deuce tennis club in Naremburn on Sydney's lower north shore for the past 40 years.

It was Crown land until the state government transferred it to the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council four years ago.

Love'n Deuce has now been evicted from the site, which Mr Francis partly puts down to "poorly worded legislation".

He said the club was not part of the land transfer decision in 2022, and managers like himself were unable to correct inaccuracies in the claim.

"The site was portrayed as being a private club and you had to be a member of the club, we don't have any memberships here, the whole site is open to the public," he said.

Mr Francis said the lease had been granted to new tenants, Racquet Club.

"We weren't aware of any tender going out and the next thing we knew, we got the eviction notice," he said.

"I think if the [new] legislation had been in place we wouldn't be having the dramas we're having today, no doubt."

'We're not going to sit idle'

The Naremburn tennis club is the kind of "edge case" the state government says it wants to avoid, however, what that term refers to is not clear to the NSWALC.

"What are we talking about in terms of these edge cases? That's the difficulty here because we can't see into that," Dr Kelly said.

He said he looked forward to sitting down with Mr Kamper to gain some clarity on the phrase.

"This is where that concept of 'land grab', 'ungrateful', these things injure people, these statements, they injure our people and it continues to happen time and time again."

Dr Kelly said the consultation period for the law changes was "forced" and "short", but the NSW Aboriginal Land Council was open to further discussion.

"Clearly the ball is in the court of the government right now. They know full well our position," he said.

Councillor Charles Lynch said despite the legislation change being "very disappointing," NSWALC was committed to moving forward.

"What we want to assure people is today is a new day and we're not going to sit idle," Mr Lynch said.

"We will continue to stand up every day and move forward in achieving what we've set out to do."