Long time since I was involved with this but a wait and see atitude seems approriate. The devil is in the detail: too little yet to be celebratory. Assumedly it includes areas covered by the Aboriginal Land Rights Act, and maybe Native Title Act. Definition of "indigenous protected areas" badly needed. Various heritage acts also apply on land outside of land protected by the ALRA. And land under claim but not resolved? The land councils will have their lawyers and consultants poring over this announcement. Federal parliament, I think, can also legislate on this issue as er Memorandum of Understanding (as happened with the euthanasia issue years ago?)? I am sure there is much to come out in the wash with Territory and Commonwealth legislation applying though certainly an area less than 50% of the NT may open up, the majority of which is leased from the NTG..
Actually, I would rather read here about our new CEO if and when, an announcement is ever made. My understanding is the that the word "imminent", classically meaning as per my Shorter O.E.D. "impending threateningly" or "overhanging":a bit like a diseased tree branch that will break sometime. Hope they don't mean "immanent" or that "which is entirely within the mind ...and produces no external effect" :0)
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