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Native title law has delivered nothing good to indigenous Australians and has torn families and communities apart, a federal Liberal MP says.
A draft law passed the lower house, which will give the Federal Court the power to manage mediation of native title claims.
The amendments to the Native Title Act aim to speed up the processing of claims, of which there is a backlog of about 500.
About 100 of the outstanding claims relate to land in Liberal MP Barry Haase's Western Australian electorate of Kalgoorlie.
Haase said the opposition would not vote against the legislation but he did not believe the changes would fix the "mayhem" native title law had created.
"At the time of the introduction of the act there was an all pervading point of view that said native title ... will be the panacea of all ills, the solution to all problems - almost nirvana for indigenous people in Australia," he told parliament.
"All one will have to do is to prove their association with the land on an ongoing basis according to the act and all problems will be solved.
"It was nothing else than propaganda."
Haase said he had yet to see a native title decision in his electorate that has created any good.
"I've seen whole cohesive families torn apart. I've seen communities commit murder as a result," he said.
Haase said families were at each other's throats when a family member was excluded from a claimant group.
Both major parties voted against an amendment by independent Rob Oakeshott which would have reversed the burden of proof over continuing connection to land to make it easier for claims to succeed.
Oakeshott supported the mediation and dispute resolution proposed in the bill.
But for it to work, a shift of the burden of proof from indigenous groups to the state on the legal question of ongoing connection to the land should be included, he said.
The state should have to disprove the connection, rather than the present model which required indigenous groups to prove their connection.
Oakeshott said the change was backed by High Court Chief Justice Robert French, the Law Council of Australia and the Human Rights Commission.
While opposing the amendment now, Attorney-General Robert McClelland left open the possibility of adopting it in the future.
He said he shared Oakeshott's frustration with the system's "grinding slowness" but wouldn't rush into such a change without consultation.
The bill now goes to the Senate.
