Native Title Tribunal inquiry

23 January 2013

By National Indigenous Times reporter Gerry Georgatos

The National Native Title Tribunal (NNTT) President, Graeme Neate and the Tribunal’s Registrar, Stephanie Fryer-Smith have launched an external inquiry into a former State Manager after reports published in the National Indigenous Times revealed allegations of various improprieties in reference to undeclared interests by its employee to the Tribunal. High Court of Australia officers have arrived in Western Australia as part of this inquiry and have been interviewing people – with only the notice of a few hours.

[…] A former State Manager of the NNTT is one of the owners of a consulting company which in turn owns another consulting company. It has been alleged both these companies undertook contract work within an Aboriginal organisation where one of the directors of the consulting company is the partner of that former NNTT State Manager. Furthermore it is understood the spouse of the State Manager works for the Aboriginal organisation as their Native Title Manager […] One of the companies which is owned by the former NNTT employee is a subsidiary company of the masthead company that both the former NNTT employee and spouse have an interest in. The subsidiary consulting company has allegedly five employees with four of them allegedly having previously been employed by the NNTT.

[…] The inquiry is long overdue, if for nothing else to clear the air, and to ensure self-evident conflicts of interest are adequately managed. The National Indigenous Times has spoken with a number of executives from Aboriginal Corporations and most of them enthused by this inquiry saying it may serve to ensure adequate changes to better protect against what they perceive as “pervasive” and “endemic” conflicts of interests […] one Aboriginal Corporation CEO said to the NIT “if we cannot trust adequately in the balances and checks (at the NNTT) of the systems that are in place then what can we trust in?”

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MORE REVELATIONS NEXT WEEK

Last year the National Indigenous Times put two whistleblowers on the record regarding FMG’s Native Title meddling, Mr Kerry Savas and Mr Bruce Woodley. Next week the NIT will run with an exclusive report from another whistleblower “who will corroborate the claims by Mr Savas and Mr Woodley.” The NIT has flagged that its new source is high-level, and that their “allegations are even more serious than those raised by Mr Savas and Mr Woodley.”

Full chronology of Maher/Gallagers activities

DOWNLOAD FACT SHEET

… giving full context of, and describing the connection of Lillian Maher, Michael Gallagher & their private companies to FMG land access operations.

This Fact Sheet outlines matters concerning the involvement of Lillian Maher and Michael Gallagher in private companies that had dealings with Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) and Wirlu-Murra Aboriginal Corporation (WMYAC) while Ms Maher served simultaneously as State Native Title Manager and owner/director of MGA Consulting/RCD Consulting; and while Ms Maher’s spouse, Michael Gallagher, served as Native Title Manager for WMYAC and Director of MGA Consulting/RCD Consulting.

These matters have been raised previously in “Native title boss didn’t reveal ties with FMG” by Paul Cleary in The Australian, and in several articles by National Indigenous Times (NIT) investigative reporter, Gerry Georgatos.

The Yindjibarndi Aboriginal Corporation (YAC) welcomes the inquiries, as announced in today’s NIT article Native Title Tribunal inquiry, by both the Registrar of the High Court of Australia and the National Native Title Tribunal, and hopes that they illuminate issues regarding how MGA’s activities interacted with FMG’s land access and heritage operations. These matters remain of grave concern to the Yindjibarndi People, and YAC urges that these inquiries make full discovery of all communications surrounding the work of MGA Consulting and RCD Consulting.

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LINK to Native title boss didn’t reveal ties with FMG

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