provide for a veto over development, and nor does it grant land, as the Aboriginal Land Rights Act (ALRA) does. Native title definitions National Native Title Tribunal definition: Commonwealth Government's indigenous.gov.au website: Native title has also been described as a "bundle of rights" in land, which may include such rights as camping, performing ceremony, etc. If native title is granted, specific rights are decided on a case-by-case basis, and may only sometimes includes freehold title. History Pre-Mabo 1971 – Milirrpum Australia did not experience litigation involving Aboriginal native title until the 1970s, though several earlier cases tangentially involved issues of native title. In 1835, John Batman purported to sign Batman's Treaty with Aboriginal elders in the Port Phillip District. Governor Bourke declared Batman's Treaty was "void and of no effect as against the rights of the Crown" and declared any person on "vacant land of the Crown" without authorization from the Crown to be trespassing. The proclamation was approved by the Colonial Office. The official objection to the Treaty was that Batman had attempted to negotiate directly with the Aboriginal people, whom the British did not recognise as having any claim to any lands in Australia. In 1971, in Milirrpum v Nabalco Pty Ltd (the "Gove land rights case") in the Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, Justice Richard Blackburn explicitly rejected the concept of native title, ruling against the claimants on a number of issues of law and fact, but rejecting the doctrine of Aboriginal title in favor of terra nullius, which held that land belonged to no one at the time of British settlement. 1972–1976: Aboriginal Land Rights Act In the wake of Milirrpum and the election of the Whitlam Government in 1972, the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission (also known as the Woodward Royal Commission) was established in 1973 to inquire into appropriate ways to recognise Aboriginal land rights in the Northern Territory. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam introduced a new policy of Aboriginal self-determination, and initiatives such as the Aboriginal Land Fund and the National Aboriginal Consultative Committee was set up. The latter consisted of elected Aboriginal representatives, who would advise the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs. The Whitlam government introduced legislation later passed by the Fraser Government as the Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1976, which established a procedure to transfer almost 50 per cent of land in the Northern Territory (around 600,000 km2) to collective Aboriginal ownership. The