Article by Josh Zimmerman courtesy of the West Australian.
Opposition Leader Shane Love has vowed to scrap and re-write the controversial Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act if the Nationals form government following the 2025 election.
The pledge seeks to position the new heritage laws as a key election issue – particularly in the bush – as the Nationals begin sharpening their attack lines 20 months out from the next contest.
Describing the laws as fundamentally flawed, Mr Love said he believed the new regime risked pushing up the price of land and delaying subdivisions in the midst of a housing crisis, as well as choking small businesses in red tape.
While the Nationals are highly unlikely to ever govern outright, Mr Love said securing a commitment from the Liberals to overhaul the ACHA from the ground up would be a “precondition of any agreement we make to form government”.
“It is very plain this has been an overreach by government and enough is enough,” Mr Love said.
“It affects farmers and landowners with more than 1100sqm but also a myriad of businesses from plumbers to earth moving contractors who don’t know what to expect from this legislation moving forward.”
Mr Love said the Act was the latest in range of “attacks” on regional WA since Labor came to power, following moves to end native logging and clamp down on both commercial and recreational fishing for prized species like dhufish and snapper.
While there needed to be “some level of protection of Aboriginal cultural heritage”, Mr Love said a “common sense approach” was also required and that the legislation rushed through Parliament in a matter of days in late 2021 missed that mark.
He said the “fundamental” problem with the Act was that a claim of cultural significance by an Aboriginal group was “not contestable” through an independent party.
“And from there you are put in a position of having to negotiate with that group but the full costs of doing surveys and properly investigating the situation all fall upon the landowner,” Mr Love said.
“There isn’t a clear separation of powers or duties between the knowledge holder and an adjudicator – that is a blurring of lines that needs to be rectified.”
While all residential blocks smaller than 1100sqm are exempt from the Act, Mr Love said he had fielded calls from property developers concerned about the impact on new subdivisions right across the State.
“This will actually add cost to the price of every house block that will be created in the Perth metropolitan area and in the rest of Western Australia from now on,” he said.
Mr Love will officially unveil his party’s intention to re-write the Act at a meeting of the Nationals State Council on Saturday that will also include a commitment to outline further plans to bolster “property rights” ahead of the 2025 election.
Asked why his party had voted in favour of the Act when it came before Parliament nearly two years ago, Mr Love said the laws were rushed through in less than a week and the Opposition had been given no time to properly delve into the details.
“This is the problem when you thwart the parliamentary process,” he said.
“There should have been a Green bill, an opportunity for consultation with community. This is the result of a government that was intent on ramming through its legislation.”
The Cook Government has consistently maintained the new Act simply streamlines existing laws that have been in place since 1972 but were exposed for failing to include genuine consultation with Aboriginal groups through Rio Tinto’s blasting of Juukan Gorge in 2020.
