Western Australia Plans to Transfer 8 Percent of Land Into Indigenous Ownership

The Western Australian state government is preparing legislation that will transfer an estate called the Aboriginal Lands Trust into private ownership. Currently, the land is administered by a statutory body established more than 50 years ago when church missions closed. The move is part of a policy push to increase rates of individual home ownership in remote Aboriginal communities. The land comprises 20 million hectares, which encompasses 284 separate parcels of land, five pastoral leases, and 142 permanent indigenous settlements, home to an estimated 12,000 people. The law change would mean Aboriginal people and even outside investors would be able to own homes in those communities for the first time....