Indigenous cultural heritage laws that came into force in Western Australia just over a month ago are reportedly on the verge of being scrapped following a backlash from farmers.
The WA Labor government heralded the sea change at a briefing with big resource companies and indigenous groups on Friday.
An announcement from WA Premier Roger Cook is expected ‘within a few days’, western australia informed.
The reported pushback comes a month after the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act laws came into force to prevent the destruction of sacred sites.
However, a senior Labor leader would not confirm the cancellation, instead suggesting that there may still be a viable path to fix the broken system.
The leader of the Yes for the Indigenous Voice to Parliament campaign has praised the “courageous decision” to abandon laws that he said got caught up in the referendum debate.
Yes campaign manager Dean Parkin believes scrapping controversial heritage laws will make it easier to sell Voice to Parliament in WA.
Western Australia’s Premier Roger Cook can scrap the state’s cultural heritage laws ‘in a matter of days’, less than a month after they were introduced.
Yes campaign campaign manager Dean Parkin (left) welcomed the news that the WA could scrap Aboriginal cultural laws. He is pictured with Eveanne Liddle, Director of Indigenous Affairs and Strategic Inclusion at the National Australia Bank.
“Obviously, it’s up to the Western Australian government to sort out the issues around cultural heritage legislation,” Parkin told reporters at the Garma Festival in the Northern Territory on Saturday.
“But from our perspective, it absolutely gives us a clearer path from now until the referendum to be able to focus very closely on that very simple issue of recognizing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the first peoples of this country through of a Voice.
‘Unfortunately, some of those issues have gotten caught up in the cultural heritage debate in WA.’
Kimberley Land Council chief executive Tyronne Garstone echoed Parkin’s comments.
‘Aboriginal people in WA never supported them (the laws)’, he said.
“Basically, the implementation of the bill has been terrible and the implementation has been even worse. It has been a brave decision, but correct, of the Premier’.
It comes as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese delivered his strongest and most passionate defense of the Voice at the Garma Festival on Saturday.
The prime minister (pictured on Friday holding raised spear) has vowed not to delay or postpone the referendum.
Labor leader Stephen Dawson said the WA government has yet to decide the fate of the problematic laws.
“No decision has been made by the government at this stage,” the emergency services minister told reporters in Perth on Saturday.
“I am not denying anything, I am saying that discussions are continuing between the state government and various stakeholders on the legislation and the way forward.”
The minister would not draw himself on a timeline, saying only that the government would decide ‘in the future’.
The new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act laws came into force on 1 July, after the WA government resisted calls from pastoralists and the opposition to delay their introduction.
WA’s previous laws dated back to the 1970s, notably allowing the state’s Aboriginal affairs minister to grant permission to land users to disturb cultural heritage sites.
Rio Tinto had ministerial approval in 2020 when it blew up the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters, sparking global condemnation and devastating the traditional owners.
However, a senior Labor leader refused to confirm whether Prime Minister Roger Cook (pictured) would drop the laws, suggesting there may be a way to fix them.
Work on the laws began when Rio Tinto destroyed the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters in 2020, sparking global controversy.
The new system abolished the Section 18 approval process and emphasized agreements between land users and traditional owners.
But there were deep concerns about compliance requirements, some of which were only clarified days before the laws took effect.
The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation said it was devastated, angry and betrayed in the wake of the reports.
While the laws weren’t perfect, they were better than the ones they replaced, corporation president Terry Drage said.
“Set the guidelines, which are the biggest problem, don’t kill the act,” Drage said.
He called on the federal government to proceed with an Australia-wide regime for the protection of cultural heritage, saying the preservation of heritage sites was a non-negotiable for Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders.
The corporation’s director of land and heritage management, Dr. Jordan Ralph, said the organization was considering withdrawing from heritage surveys and negotiations until the state government could provide clarity to First Nations people about the future.
Chief Executive Grant Wilson added that the corporation has not yet spoken to the government about its intention.
“Fortunately for us, we are negotiating strong co-management agreements with mining proponents, which provide each party with the clarity that is lacking in the legislation,” Mr Wilson said.
“Now it looks like we’ll be relying on our agreements to get us through this mess.”
Over 25 new local Aboriginal cultural heritage services were being established to manage sites within particular regions.
The laws, which were proposed and established by former Prime Minister Mark McGowan (pictured), have created unnecessary layers of red tape, according to farmers in the state.
Opposition leader Shane Love (pictured) has said he hopes the laws will be scrapped. the measure would be the “biggest setback of a government in many years”
The government had signaled a “light touch” approach in the first 12 months to ensure stakeholders understood their obligations.
However, the laws, which were proposed and set by former Prime Minister Mark McGowan, have proven controversial for Cook, who has been leaving his leadership since taking office in June.
Critics argued that they were too complex and landowners feared that their activities would be affected.
Government agencies also expressed confusion about their requirements under the legislation.
Landowners concerned about the new laws planned to meet in state parliament on Tuesday to call for changes to protect freehold rights.
WA Leader of the Opposition Shane Love said while he hoped the reports were true, the move is the “biggest pushback by a government in many years”.
“What we have seen is a government that has imposed a law and has not implemented it… its own members are calling it a failure,” he told reporters in Perth on Saturday.
Love said he was looking forward to going back to the drawing board and working on new laws that would “really protect wealth” but also protect businesses and the property rights of owners.
Nationals leader David Littleproud welcomed the expected removal of the changes and called on Premier Anthony Albanese to scrap federal Aboriginal heritage reforms that would supersede WA laws.
The WA laws were an overreach “requiring cultural surveys to even dig a hole,” he said.
