Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
WA heritage laws a step closer to being axed
WA’s controversial 2021 Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act is likely to be officially repealed in November.
October 18, 2023
Western Australia’s botched Aboriginal cultural heritage laws are a step closer to being officially repealed.
Premier Roger Cook was forced to axe the new laws in August following widespread anger among the farming community.
A bill to scrap the 2021 act and amend and restore the 50-year-old laws that it replaced passed through the WA parliament’s Upper House late on Tuesday.
Mr Cook said he expects the new laws to come into operation next month.
“We want to get on and implement these laws as quickly as possible to make sure that we can bring in a new regime, a regime that works with Aboriginal people,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
He said the amendments would allow Aboriginal people to be more involved in the management and protection of their cultural heritage, and give industry more certainty and clearer pathways.
The 2021 Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act laws came into effect on July 1 in response to mining giant Rio Tinto blowing up the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters in the Pilbara region in 2020.
The legislation sailed through the lower and upper houses within two months before being introduced on July 1, 2023, replacing the 1972 laws.
It caused a backlash among pastoralists, with about 30,000 angry farmers signing a petition for the new laws to be axed or modified in the weeks after they came into effect.