The Albanese government is being urged to provide a base level of funding to native title groups every year and overhaul legislation to prevent mining companies and environmental activists “splintering” communities.

Jamie Lowe, chief executive of the National Native Title Council, which acts as the peak group for 268 native title organisations – known as Prescribed Bodies Corporates, or PBC – said about 180 of them were classified as “small” and generated little income.