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Effects of the Mabo Decision

In: Social Issues

Submitted By yellowtiger
Words 1955
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The Mabo case was initially seen as a revolution in Australian Law, but its legal effects have turned out to be largely illusory. Discuss this statement

The Mabo vs. Queensland case was the first major land title claim made by Indigenous Australians for their traditional lands. When the Mabo case was resolved it was seen as a landmark decision by the High Courts and was an was the start of other of cases native title claims to be made against the States and territories. This was evident with the Wik case that followed in the years after Mabo.

In order to determine the effect that the Mabo case has had on Australian Law and subsequent cases we need to look into the details of the case, what judgement was made, and how that judgement came about. Then the details of the judgement can be used to look at other decisions like Wik, and how the legislations and proceeding acts have been introduced.

Discussed also will be the potential effect that the Mabo case had, not only with land rights and native title issues, but also to help with the reconciliation of the displaced aboriginal people upon British settlement. As you will read later there was a lot of potential for the governments of the day to use these decisions, but there was great reluctance to protect themselves and other members Australia.

We can begin by having a look in further details of firstly the Mabo vs. The State of Queensland case, then the Wik vs. The State of Queensland case. You will note that although the cases have many similarities, there were also some very obvious differences. It was these differences which made the government introduce the Native Title Act 1993, then the Native Title Amendment Act 1998.

In order to understand the Mabo case, you need to know that it involved the people from the Murray and Torres Strait Islands claiming native title to their islands. Part of

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