Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak as a proud Djab Wurrung, Gunnai, Gundjitjamara woman. Our culture physical and intangible holds the wisdom to heal and care for country and for each other. The final Juukan report showed again that colonial violence is still alive and well in our laws and policies today. Successive governments are complicit in destroying our tangible and intangible cultural heritage and sacred sites. The Senate's inquiry clearly showed how out heritage protection laws not only failed to protect but are even designed to favour developers and miners. It is no surprise that Australia is absent from the list of countries who support the 2003 UN Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. One hundred and eighty-one nations have signed up to this convention, yet, not good old Aussie, not good old Australia. This absence is noticeable. Only around a dozen nations have not signed. You are a national shame, Labor. This is a national shame.

This government stated that it is going to reform heritage legislation in this country, and yet we haven't heard of any progress and we don't have a time line for when this will happen. In fact, no consultations with First Peoples on these reforms have taken place since February this year. We need a whole new framework for cultural heritage protection in this country, including a single national standard for protection of intangible cultural heritage and for Australia to finally sign up to the UN convention.

Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

ator DEAN SMITH () (): Western Australians have welcomed the backdown by their new Labor premier, Roger Cook, of his poorly planned, poorly implemented Aboriginal cultural heritage laws. The right thing to do is how WA Liberal leader Libby Mettam greeted the news. In her words, they 'overreached, causing unnecessary angst in the community'. It's a win for WA and a win for the thousands who signed petitions, attended meetings and voiced their concerns. It's a triumph for common sense. All this pain, anxiety and confusion could have been avoided if WA's Labor premier had chosen to listen earlier. This is a triumph for common sense, but WA Labor's still faces a test: a test about where its interests really lie, a test on whether it can strike the right balance.

WA's interests are always best served by a workable Aboriginal cultural heritage regime that enjoys the strongest support from agricultural communities, from mining communities and from Indigenous communities. Labor's act failed this important test. WA Labor and Premier Cook have said they will now tweak the pre-existing act. This is their last chance to create a modern fit-for-purpose and distinctly WA Aboriginal heritage law for the future.