Western Australia’s premier has joined with the mining sector in dismissing calls for stronger federal oversight of Aboriginal cultural heritage.
A parliamentary inquiry into Rio Tinto‘s destruction of the sacred Juukan Gorge rock shelters has called for overarching commonwealth heritage legislation to be co-designed with Indigenous people.
It would set out minimum standards for all states and territories and potentially the right for traditional owners to veto the destruction of important sites.
Rio had legal permission to destroy the Juukan caves under WA’s outdated Aboriginal Heritage Act, but has conceded it breached the trust of traditional owners.
WA’s government is close to finalising new legislation which would remove the Section 18 process used by Rio to blow up the Juukan caves.
Premier Mark McGowan says the proposed revamp will make it unnecessary to strengthen federal laws.
“Greater federal oversight of most things is, in my experience, generally a mistake,” Mr McGowan told reporters on Tuesday.
“But we will put in place stronger Aboriginal heritage laws as soon as we can … we expect we’ll have legislation ready to go sometime in coming months.
“We’re confident that our legislation will protect Aboriginal heritage, give a much greater say to Aboriginal people and do the right thing by heritage in our state.”
WA’s Chamber of Minerals and Energy took a similar stance, saying stronger federal laws “would not deliver improvements and would only duplicate processes and relationships”.
Aboriginal groups have been highly critical of the draft WA heritage bill released to the public last year. They say it does not provide sufficient safeguards and would place a heavy burden on under-resourced native title groups.
In its final report into the Juukan incident, the Northern Australia committee said federal laws should focus on protecting and celebrating heritage and emphasise the principles of free, prior and informed consent.
The recommendations have been backed by groups including the National Native Title Council and the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility.
“First Nations heritage is destroyed on a daily basis, often legally and without a legal right for traditional owners to say no,” Ngalia elder and NNTC chair Kado Muir said.
“To this end, we welcome the recommendations made to allow traditional owners to withhold consent to the destruction of cultural heritage, and to better resource native title bodies so they can effectively carry out their statutory duties.”
Greens senator Dorinda Cox, WA’s first female Indigenous upper house member, also called for a First Nations response to prevent other Indigenous sites from meeting a similar fate.
“We need federal legislation that governs this and provides surety and guidance to state legislation,” Senator Cox told the ABC.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley said the protection of cultural sites was a national priority and the states and Commonwealth were working to address gaps.
