WA protesters: Aboriginal Heritage Act changes

Audio report from Anna Vidot ABC PM - Katrin Long and staff reporters

A petition with more than 1,600 signatures protesting against planned changes to the Aboriginal Heritage Act has been presented to Western Australia's Parliament.

They presented the petition to the Opposition's Aboriginal Affairs spokesman Ben Wyatt and Nationals member for the Pilbara Brendon Grylls.

Port Hedland Nyamal elder Doris Eaton said she was not against mining but wanted protections in place.

"[Our heritage] is not going to be protected like the European heritage," she said.

"There's a hell of a lot of mining going on. We're not saying no to mining, but we want Government to negotiate properly with us."

Mr Grylls was moved by the distance people had travelled.

"It's relatively easy to come to Parliament and make your point if you live just over the river," he said.

"It's not easy to come to Parliament if you live in the Gascoyne or the Pilbara, or the Kimberley.

"That's damn hard, and that makes it very clear to me how passionate you are about this issue."

Mr Wyatt said it was clear that Indigenous people were not happy with the act's changes.

"It's my view that the change doesn't give due respect and consultation for Aboriginal people," he said.

"Aboriginal heritage isn't something for Government to bequeath to Aboriginal people. It's been there well before Government came along here in Western Australia.

"We need to look after and respect [it], and importantly Aboriginal people need to be involved in the process around heritage recognition and protection. That's my view and that's the view I'll take to the Parliament."

Changes speed up approval processes

Mr Grylls and a delegation of elders met Aboriginal Affairs Minister Peter Collier to voice concerns about the potential loss of Aboriginal cultural heritage and protection of sacred sites.

Mr Collier said he thought changes to the Act would be positive.

"The Aboriginal Heritage Act will actually enhance opportunities for Aboriginal people to have a say in what goes on," he said.

"It really does protect the sites, it provides much more clarity in terms of transparency of the process, everything will be readily available. At the moment it's not."

The draft bill, which was released earlier this year, speeds up the approval process for mining and other development by giving the Department of Aboriginal Affairs chief executive officer "expedited" or "fast track" authority to declare whether or not an Aboriginal heritage site existed.

The CEO would be able to issue land use permits when he or she decided a site would not be significantly damaged or altered.

Submissions on the draft amendments have been overwhelmingly critical of the proposed changes, in particular the new fast track approvals process.

Mr Collier said the pace of economic development in recent years, particularly in mining and construction, had highlighted inadequacies in the current legislation.

The proposed changes were labelled discriminatory by the Kimberley Land Council (KLC) which said earlier this year that they would disenfranchise Indigenous people.

The KLC said the draft bill focused power in the hands of one bureaucrat - the department's CEO.

Currently the Aboriginal Cultural Material Committee (ACMC), established through the act, provides advice and recommendations to the Aboriginal Affairs Minister on heritage sites.

The Law Society of WA and other organisations have argued the new process, via the CEO, would largely cut out Aboriginal people.

The Law Society said the proposed amendments stripped the ACMC of its evaluative role and predominantly shifted power to the CEO, who was not obliged to consult with Aboriginal people or to apply anthropological expertise.

When the draft bill was released, the department said the CEO would have certain regulations to follow, including having to refer any permit application to the committee if the activity could damage the site.