The NSW union movement is supporting a coordinated campaign by the NSW Aboriginal Land Council (NSWALC) against the state government’s proposed Crown Land Management Amendment Bill 2026, condemning it as an “attack by stealth” on Aboriginal Land Rights.  

The controversial legislation, formally known as the Crown Land Management Amendment (Statutory Review) Bill 2026, was introduced into NSW Parliament under the guise of “miscellaneous minor amendments”. However, First Nations leaders and industrial advocates warn the changes are far from administrative.  

If passed, the Bill will has the potential to hollow out the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (ALRA), grounding the progress of land restitution across New South Wales.  

Undermining 40 years of restitution 

The foundational principle of the ALRA allows Local Aboriginal Land Councils to claim Crown land that is unused, unneeded, or being used unlawfully. These returned lands form the bedrock of economic independence for Indigenous communities, driving regional development, community health initiatives, and affordable housing projects.  

Currently, the state faces a backlog of over 43,500 unresolved land claims, with official determinations hitting historic lows. Rather than addressing this bottleneck, the new Bill introduces regressive definitions that appear designed to systematically defeat outstanding claims.  

The primary industrial and legal concerns cited by the NSWALC include:  

• Redefining “Lawful Use”: The Bill dictates that the mere existence of a paper lease—without any physical activity on the ground—classifies land as “lawfully used,” allowing the state to block legitimate land claims. This directly overrides a recent landmark High Court decision regarding Quarry Street land.  

• Retrospective powers: The legislation grants the government retrospective authority to validate historically unlawful leases and licences, effectively erasing state accountability and overriding existing, undetermined claims.  

Independent legal voices, including the Law Society of New South Wales, have echoed these concerns, warning of the dangerous precedents set by removing government accountability for unlawful property management.  

A call for mobilisation and solidarity 

While strong initial pushback from the NSWALC forced the government to temporarily pause the Bill for consultation, advocates warn that this could become a tokenistic box-ticking exercise.  

The broader union and social justice movements view the protection of land rights as non-negotiable. To prevent the Minns Government from quietly passing these discriminatory rollbacks, the NSWALC  is calling for urgent collective action from union members, allies, and the wider public.  

The NSWALC has launched a petition against the proposed changes. You can sign the petition here.