Text Box 5.4: Significant inquiries and reports relevant to land justice and cultural heritage since 2016 (cont.) Nous Group, for the National Indigenous Australians Agency (NIAA), Comparative Performance of fourteen Native Title Representative Bodies (31 March 2021): Nous Group assessed and reported on the extent to which 14 NTRB-SPs are achieving positive and sustainable outcomes for people who hold or aspire to hold native title. The reviews examined various factors that impact on good performance – including NTRB-SP’s efficiency and effectiveness in performing their functions under the Native Title Act, their cost effectiveness, governance arrangements, support for the organisations that hold native title and the future of the NTRB-SPs in a post‑determination world. It also reports on systemic issues which arose in the reviews. Aboriginal Affairs NSW, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 Statutory Review 2021 Report (September 2021). The 2021 ALRA review identified immediate and long-term work to be realised through a three-stage process. These three-stages acknowledge the attention to complaints (including in relation to misconduct), membership, representation, and more. Five themes underpin this work, including: Aboriginal culture and heritage, strategic land use, compensation, compliance and regulation, and social housing. These themes aligned with the review’s guiding principles of consistency, efficiency, and empowerment. Parliament of Australia, Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia, A Way Forward: Report on the Inquiry into the Destruction of 46,000 year old caves at the Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, (October 2021): Following Rio Tinto’s destruction of the 46,000+ year old Juukan Gorge rock shelters on 24 May 2020, the Senate referred the matter for inquiry. This Report found that there are serious deficiencies across Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage legislative framework, in all states and territories and the Commonwealth, not only the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA); and that legislation designed to protect cultural heritage has, in many cases, directly contributed to damage and destruction. The Committee called for legislative frameworks in all Australian jurisdictions to be modernised, based on the UNDRIP principles of free, prior and informed consent, to bring meaningful protections for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage. 28 Women in Native Title: Native Title Report 2024