Australia

Putting aside the harms a reversion will likely permit over coming years as the Juukan Gorge fiasco is repeated elsewhere, this in the midst of the Garma festival and with Labor trying to get its referendum over the line looks absolutely absurd.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

An Indigenous group says it is devastated by reports cultural heritage laws that came into effect in Western Australia just over a month ago are about to be scrapped following a backlash from farmers.

The Labor government foreshadowed the about-face at a briefing with big resources companies and Indigenous groups on Friday, the West Australian reported on Saturday.

The new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act laws came into effect on 1 July, after Roger Cook’s Labor government resisted calls from pastoralists and the opposition to delay their introduction.

WA’s previous laws dated back to the 1970s and allowed the state’s Aboriginal affairs minister to grant land users permission to disturb cultural heritage sites.

Rio Tinto had ministerial approval in 2020 when it blew up the 46,000-year-old Juukan Gorge rock shelters, sparking global condemnation and devastating traditional owners.

“What we’ve seen is a government that has rammed a piece of legislation through and failed to implement it ... its own members are calling it botched,” he told reporters in Perth on Saturday.

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