Tuesday, 3 March 2026
Chair
Greg McIntyre SC, Michael Kirby Chambers
Contested Identity and Expanding Claims: Intra-Indigenous Disputes and the Limits of Native Title Law
Native title proceedings increasingly involve complex disputes between Indigenous groups over identity, connection, and competing claims to traditional ownership. This session examines the challenges these disputes create within the framework of Australian native title law, including overlapping claims, questions of cultural authority, evidentiary difficulties, and the limitations of the legal system in resolving deeply contested issues of identity and belonging. Practical insights will be provided on managing these disputes in litigation and negotiation contexts.
Presented by Susan Phillips, Barrister, 13th Floor St James Hall; Preeminent Junior Counsel; Doyles Guide 2025
Description
Attend and earn 1 CPD unit in Substantive Law
This program is applicable to practitioners from all States & Territories
* This interactive online recording includes questions and quizzes requiring critical thinking about the topics, so you have no annual limits to the number of points/hours you can claim with this format of learning. Please verify with your CPD rules
Presenters
Greg McIntyre SC, Michael Kirby ChambersGreg McIntyre SC was admitted to practice in 1974. He gained extensive experience in the first 15 years of practice in criminal law and also practised between 1984 and 1988 in Family Law. Greg was Principal Legal Officer, Aboriginal Legal Service of WA, 1988-90. From 1990-92 he worked in general litigation at Corser & Corser. He has practised solely as a Barrister since 1993. Greg has developed a High Court and Federal Court advocacy practice in the fields of Native Title, Human Rights, Immigration, Environmental law and Administrative law generally. In recent years he has also been engaged in commercial litigation, personal injury cases and legal professional conduct cases. He was appointed Senior Counsel in 2002 and since that time he has been a member of the Professional Affairs Committee of the Legal practice Board. He was appointed as an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame in 2001 and the University of Western Australia in 2016. He at the University of Notre Dame between 2000 and 2012 and in 2011 lectured at the University of WA on the subject of Indigenous Peoples and the Law and in 2007 lectured in Constitutional Law at Notre Dame. He was awarded the Australian Human Rights Commission Law Award in 2011. Greg was President of the Law Council of Australia in 2024 and now Chairs its Legal Practice Section and sits on its Indigenous Peoples and the Law, Human Rights and Access to Justice Committees. He was President of the Law Society of WA in 2019 and Chairs its Indigenous Peoples and the Law and Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Committees and is deputy-Chair of its Access to Justice Committee.
Susan Phillips, Barrister, 13th Floor St James Hall
Susan Phillips is a barrister specialising in native title and land rights. She has published and worked in that field since the Mabo decision was handed down in 1992. Susan has been counsel to Indigenous people all over Australia representing them in the NNTT, Federal Court and in litigation, mediation and negotiations with local, State and Commonwealth governments and other parties. Susan also works on matters concerning Indigenous cultural heritage including by providing reports to the Federal Minister for the Environment where applications seeking protection of sites at risk of injury or desecration have been made.
