Human rights — Property rights — Traditional land rights — Plaintiffs seeking legal recognition and protection of land rights — Annexation of Murray Islands to State of Queensland in 1879 — Assumption that traditional land rights surviving annexation for purposes of demurrer — Queensland Coast Islands Declaratory Act 1985 (Qld) (“Queensland Act”) purporting to extinguish plaintiffs’ rights retrospectively — Whether Queensland Act capable of extinguishing plaintiffs’ rights — Whether Queensland Act discriminatory — Whether Queensland Act inconsistent with Sections 9 and 10 of Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) — Consequences of any inconsistency between State law and Commonwealth law — Section 109 of the Commonwealth Constitution — Whether Queensland Act sufficiently specific — Whether Queensland Parliament possessing requisite power — Whether any interference with judicial process

Treaties — International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1965 (“the Convention”) — Article 5(d) — Right to own and inherit property — Implicit right to enjoy protection from arbitrary dispossession of one’s property — Whether Queensland Act contrary to the Convention

Relationship of international law and municipal law — Treaties — International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, 1965 — Racial Discrimination Act 1975 (Cth) giving effect to treaty in Australian law — Human rights — Article 5(d) of the Convention — Right to own and inherit property — Right to enjoy protection from arbitrary dispossession of one’s property — Whether Queensland Act inconsistent with Sections 9 and 10 of Racial Discrimination Act — Validity of State law — Section 109 of Commonwealth Constitution — The law of Australia