Dear NQLC Members

The NQLC Board of Directors held a Teleconference Board Meeting on Friday 20th September 2019. At this meeting the Board of Directors passed the following motions:-

1. That the Board of Directors resolve to postpone the Ward Elections scheduled for Saturday 28th September 2019 to a date to be fixed.
2. That the Board of Directors direct the CEO to apply for an extension of 6 months from November 2019 to hold the 2019-2021 Ward Elections and 2019 AGM.

The NQLC Board has also provided the following statement for the information of the NQLC Members.

STATEMENT FROM THE NQLC BOARD OF DIRECTORS

The Directors of the NQLC recognising that Native Title Representative Bodies are at a critical point in time where PBCs and Common Law Native Title Holders are under pressure from Governments and Industry to facilitate economic development either through negotiations with proponents that extinguish their Native Title Rights and Interests or via ILUA Negotiations that facilitate developments and agreements that have set aside Native Title holders rights and interests, as identified in the Timber Creek case. Directors of the NQLC have moved to extend the timeframe in which to hold the organisations Ward Elections and its Annual General Meeting for a six month period, so that the Board can facilitate a restructure of the organisation, within a Native Title Services Organisation, to accommodate economic development which has been the top agenda item for over two years. The restructure of the organisation will include the social component responsibilities of the NQLC, so as to become an integral part of our future processes given they are presently contained in our Constitution.

The purpose of the Motion to postpone the Ward Election is to allow us time to model the restructure so that the NQLC as an organisation is clearly positioned in a way that allows it to work closely with the current group of PBCs and Common Law Native Title Holders, to take the best decisions around native title and economic development along with the protection of our cultural heritage and all other areas of social disadvantage given the demise of the ATSIC has left Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities without a regional Voice on these matters.

The NQLC needs to bring a new set of operational arrangements to the NQLC so that by having the collective strength of the PBC and Common Law Native Title Holders, the constituency become beneficiaries of a broader scope of Social Justice activities.

Steve Ducksbury
Chief Executive Officer