The High Court of Australia has handed down its first decision
on compensation payable under the federal Native Title Act 1993
("Act"). The case is Northern Territory v Mr A. Griffiths
(deceased) and Lorraine Jones on behalf of the Ngaliwurru and
Nungali Peoples [2019] HCA 7 (13 March 2019).
The High Court has confirmed that just terms compensation
payable under the Act for extinguishment of native title
non–exclusive rights should be divided into three
components—economic loss, simple interest, and cultural loss.
The amount awarded in this instance was $2.53 million. Cultural
loss was $1.3 million of this amount.
The cultural loss award and the other compensation amounts will
involve substantial compensation being paid by governments that
undertook past acts which extinguished native title rights. The
Federal, State, and Territory governments will now be required to
deal with the numerous native title compensation claims from
Aboriginal groups who have established
