Australian state axes new law to protect Indigenous heritage
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WA Premier Roger Cook confirms his government will scrap its controversial Aboriginal cultural heritage legislation.
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Aboriginal man Arron Nichols, left, plays a didgeridoo as other members of the Muggera Dancers perform at the start of an Invasion Day rally in Sydney, Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023 (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)
Western Australia announced on Tuesday that it is repealing a five-week-old regulation that was put in place to preserve Indigenous sites after Rio Tinto destroyed a 46,000-year-old sacred rock shelter there.
Indigenous organizations criticized the decision to abolish the law, claiming there had been insufficient consultation and that their needs had been disregarded.
The Anglo-Australian mining firm revealed in 2020 that it had damaged the rock shelter in Juukan Gorge, Western Australia, to develop an iron ore mine, prompting the resource-rich state to enact the Aboriginal Heritage Act.
Read: Aboriginal 'Voice to Parliament' harrowed by Australian opposition
The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura (PKKP) Indigenous people of Western Australia revered the site, which housed some of the earliest artifacts ever discovered in Australia.
The new law, which went into effect on July 1, according to Western Australia's premier, Roger Cook, will be repealed because it is too complicated.
"The Juukan Gorge tragedy was a global embarrassment but our response was wrong," Cook said, adding that they "took it too far, unintentionally causing stress, confusion and division in our community."
After his predecessor resigned, the center-left Labor Party premier took office two months later and declared that it was "obvious" that reforms were required.
"The complicated regulations, the burden on landowners, and the poor rollout of the new laws have been unworkable for all members of our community, and for that, I am sorry," he said.
'Outraged'
The state government declared that it would overturn the new law and go back to the earlier, 50-year-old law.
However, it would make a few changes, such as requiring landowners to tell the government of any new information regarding an Aboriginal site.
According to the government, common landowners won't be forced to perform their own heritage surveys. Instead, over the following ten years, the state will scan uncharted "high priority" areas with the permission of landowners.
According to the PKKP Aboriginal Council, the decision to abolish the new heritage preservation law "outraged" indigenous people.
"The Cook government is reverting to laws that allowed (the) destruction of Juukan Gorge," said PKKP land and heritage manager Jordan Ralph, lamenting a return to an approvals process that "benefits industry over our country".
Kado Muir, head of the National Native Title Council, which promotes Indigenous rights, said that before voting to repeal the law, the state administration did not properly consult First Nations people.
"We are left in a state of confusion and fear that cultural heritage sites are not going to be adequately and effectively protected in Western Australia," Muir told AFP.
"They seem to be offering concessions to farmers and others to be able to go out and destroy sites. The devil is in the detail -- we don't know what the detail looks like."
The state's actions, according to Muir, demonstrate the need for federal law to serve as a "backstop" to safeguard Australia's Indigenous cultural heritage.
