Does the Bushfires Act apply to land owned pursuant to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 (Cth)?
Briefly, what the Land Rights Act says is that Northern Territory law can apply, with an important caveat, to Aboriginal land as long as it is not inconsistent with other parts of the Land Rights Act. The Land Rights Act ‘does not affect the application to Aboriginal land of a law of the Northern Territory to the extent that law is capable of operating concurrently (with the Land Rights Act)’ (s 74).4 Many provisions of the Bushfires Act will no doubt apply across the Territory, however, it is not clear that the Bushfires Act and Land Rights Act can operate concurrently in all respects on Aboriginal land. Rights to use Aboriginal land in accordance with tradition are preserved by s 71(1) of the Land Rights Act.5 Aboriginal land use in the form of burning practices therefore has protection under Commonwealth legislation if they (the burning practices) are in accordance with tradition. There is legal space, in other words, for Aboriginal burning. Northern Territory law (the Bushfires Act
