Libby Porter

Libby Porter is a Professor at the Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University. This submission draws from Libby's 25 years of research on the role of urban planning and development in the dispossession of First Peoples and how state policy regimes sustain the structure of dispossession that First Peoples continue to experience. It focuses on the role played by the state and non-state entities in taking First Peoples lands; the ways that institutions, policies and legislation have changed over time to sustain that dispossession; the concerning ways that regimes of state recognition such as native title or cultural heritage can dilute and deny First Peoples rights; and some suggested reforms for redress.