On 24 June 2026, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) tabled its Final Report of the Review of the Future Acts Regime (Inquiry), titled, ‘Fulfilling the Promise of Mabo: Reforming the Future Acts Regime in the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth)’(Report).
The Inquiry marks the first substantial review of the future acts regime since the 1998 amendments to the Native Title Act 1993 (Cth) (NTA)following Wik Peoples v Queensland (1996) 187 CLR 1, which addressed the co-existence of native title with pastoral leases.
What prompted the review of the future acts regime?
The Inquiry was prompted by the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia’s 2020 inquiry into the destruction of two 46,000 year old rock shelters at Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara Region of Western Australia, as well as a subsequent request from the Attorney-General for the ALRC to review the future acts regime. As part of that review, the ALRC was asked to consult widely and develop recommendations to improve the operation of the regime.
The Report challenges the policy settings that have shaped the future acts regime for almost three decades. In the ALRC’s view, the current framework produces unfair and discriminatory outcomes for native title holders, while also creating inefficiencies, delays and uncertainty for development. In response, the ALRC proposes a significant reform of the regime, which aims to ensure that equality before the law and economic development operate as mutually reinforcing objectives.
What is changing?
For proponents, the recommendations in the Report point towards a future acts regime that places greater emphasis on engagement, relationship-building, negotiated outcomes and benefit-sharing. If implemented, they have the potential to reshape how projects are planned, negotiated and delivered, with a stronger focus on cooperation and long-term partnerships with native title holders.
The Inquiry represents a significant review of the future acts regime. However, the Report’s recommendations do not have immediate legal effect and will now be considered by Government through the ordinary legislative and parliamentary process. To what extent the recommendations are ultimately adopted remains uncertain. In the meantime, proponents should proceed on the basis that the current legislative framework remains unchanged.
The case for reform
The ALRC concludes in the Report that native title holders are not afforded the same procedural and substantive protections as other property owners when their rights and interests are affected by future acts. In the ALRC’s view, the resulting inequality produces a regime that is both unfair and discriminatory.
The Report is particularly critical of the compensation framework, noting that, more than 30 years after the commencement of the NTA, not a single dollar of compensation has been awarded to native title holders under the statutory future acts compensation scheme. The ALRC describes this as a significant failure of the current regime to provide effective, timely, fair and just redress.
The Report responds with 86 recommendations aimed at reshaping the future acts regime. Key reform themes include a stronger emphasis on negotiated outcomes, a greater role for the National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT), improved access to compensation and benefit-sharing, and the replacement of existing statutory procedures with an impact-based framework. The Report also proposes the introduction of Native Title Plans, enabling native title holders to take a more proactive role in future development on Country.
Several of these recommendations have the potential to materially affect how proponents plan, negotiate and deliver projects. We examine some of the key proposals below.
Impact-based framework
One of the Report’s most significant recommendations is the replacement of the existing statutory procedures with an impact-based scheme. Rather than allocating procedural rights by reference to tenure categories, the reforms would link protections to the likely impact of a future act on native title rights and interests.
For proponents, this recommendation is more than a change to process. The focus may shift from identifying the applicable statutory pathway to understanding the likely impacts of a proposal and how those impacts can be avoided, mitigated, or addressed. In practice, this is likely to place greater emphasis on early project planning, impact assessment and engagement with native title holders.
While the ALRC considers that the proposed framework would ultimately provide a more coherent and streamlined regime, its implementation is likely to involve a period of transition as the new impact categories, protections and assessment processes are developed and applied in practice. This proposed reform could have significant implications for industries that operate on land subject to native title, particularly mining and agribusiness.
Greater emphasis on negotiated outcomes
The Report reflects a clear policy preference for negotiated outcomes over prescribed statutory processes. To support this shift, the ALRC recommends stronger agreement-making mechanisms, including:
- good faith negotiation obligations;
- enhanced NNTT functions; and
- expanded dispute resolution pathways.
Taken together, these reforms signal a shift towards a future acts regime that places greater emphasis on engagement, participation and agreement-making. For proponents, successful project delivery may increasingly depend not only on navigating the legislative framework, but also on building constructive relationships with native title holders. The ALRC considers that earlier engagement and more effective negotiations are more likely to support relationship-building, equitable outcomes, benefit-sharing and project certainty.
Proactive role for Traditional Owners
The Report proposes the introduction of Native Title Plans, enabling native title holders to proactively identify development priorities and long-term aspirations for development on Country. If adopted, these plans could influence project planning at a much earlier stage, providing proponents with greater insight into Traditional Owner priorities and opportunities for more aligned and collaborative outcomes. In this respect, Native Title Plans have the potential to shift engagement from consultation towards genuine partnership.
Standing instructions
The ALRC has recommended expanding the use of standing instructions so that certain prescribed bodies corporate can enter into future act agreements without undertaking a separate consultation and consent process for each agreement, provided the common law holders have authorised that approach and any conditions attached to the standing instructions are met.
The proposal is intended to reduce delay, cost and administrative burden in future act agreement-making. It would not apply to acts that extinguish native title, and would be accompanied by additional oversight measures to ensure common law holders retain appropriate control over the exercise of standing instructions.
A future acts regime focused on early engagement and meaningful benefit-sharing
The Report emphasises that native title holders should enjoy protections equivalent to those afforded to other property owners where their rights and interests are affected. In doing so, the ALRC seeks to reframe native title protection and economic development as complementary, rather than competing, objectives.
While the Federal Government’s response to the Report remains to be seen, it provides the clearest indication to date of the direction in which future acts reform may evolve. The proposed reforms point towards a future acts regime in which early engagement, meaningful negotiation, benefit-sharing and strong relationships with native title holders will play an increasingly important role in project delivery. Proponents that begin assessing the potential implications of the Report now will be better positioned to respond to future policy and legislative developments in the future acts regime.