Pastoral Lease Tenure in Australia: Historical Relic or Useful Contemporary Tool?

Abstract

Pastoral leasehold has evolved as the vehicle for the flexible award of property rights and duties in Australia's rangelands capable of serving as an effective public policy instrument while meeting the needs of titleholders. These capabilities were most clearly revealed during the interventionist phase of planned closer settlement. With the loss of policy momentum directed towards further pastoral development and closer settlement, leasehold tenure appeared to be in danger of becoming a bureaucratic anachronism. More recently, however, the sharply escalating revival of public interest in the rangelands is forcing a re- examination of property rights, with renewed interest in lease tenures as policy instruments, within a context of multiple values and uses, many not being readily tied to private land title. We examine the theoretical arguments as well as the pragmatic case for retaining a distinctive regime of limited property rights in Australia's rangelands, focusing on the following issues: matching property rights with resource contexts; balancing internalities and externalities; timing the award of property rights; specificity and flexibility; coordinated administration; and perceptions and expectations. We conclude by identifying the core attributes of an effective property-rights regime based on lease title. These attributes are: clear specification of the property rights of the lessee, designed to meet the resource needs of the enterprise; performance standards with increasing emphasis on sustainable use; capacity to award additional rights, where additional resources can be internalised effectively; specification of the rights of other interest-groups; powers of resumption for more intensive uses; powers to revise lease conditions; and payment of an annual rent. We foresee the revival of the leasehold system as a mechanism for defining property rights and duties precisely, and as an instrument for delivering policies on a wide range of issues concerning the management and use of the rangelands.