The former Labor government upheld the Mabo principle when it passed the Native Title Act in 1993.

ECONOMIST: Australia

But, when Parliament later enshrined Mabo in the Native Title Act, it excluded pastoral leases from native title claims.

ECONOMIST: The aboriginal patterns that haunt Australia | The

The concept of native title itself was established only in 1992 in another ruling known as the Mabo case.

ECONOMIST: Australia

In its Mabo judgment, the High Court limited rights to native-title claims to unused land owned by the state.

ECONOMIST: Australia

That judgment went further than a High Court ruling of 1992, known as the Mabo case, which established that aborigines had the right to claim native title to traditional lands, something never recognised before.

ECONOMIST: The aboriginal patterns that haunt Australia | The