The WA government will undertake Aboriginal cultural heritage surveys for the next 10 years after scrapping its divisive new legislation on Tuesday.

Premier Roger Cook said the 2021 Heritage Act "took things too far" as he announced a return to the 1972 laws, which were in force when Rio Tinto destroyed sacred rock shelters at Juukan Gorge (pictured) in 2020.

He said tweaks to the 50-year-old Act would prevent another catastrophe like the mining titan's and apologised for the stress, confusion and division the new laws had created for stakeholders.

Mr Cook said heritage surveys would take place in high priority unsurveyed areas, with locations where development was imminent being surveyed first.

He told the media farmers could refuse to allow a survey on their land.

"If a farmer doesn't want an Aboriginal cultural heritage survey to be undertaken on their land, that won't happen," Mr Cook said.

Mr Cook said he believed no landowner would want to damage cultural heritage.

"I have not met a single person in the community that says that they want to undertake development at the cost of Aboriginal cultural heritage," he said.

"What they want is a framework, whereby they can work and find agreement around how they go about discovering that Aboriginal cultural heritage and then protect it."

WA would also abandon Local Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Services after previously allocating $77 million to fund the services that would assess cultural heritage.

The funds will instead be used to deliver the government-run heritage surveys, which will be centrally held and publicly available.

Existing Native Title groups and First Nations corporations will receive additional funding to boost their capacity in the absence of LACHS.

WA Attorney General John Quigley said the amendments to the 1972 act would be introduced to Parliament on Tuesday and admitted the repealed legislation was a "masterclass in the perils of unintended consequences".

He had nothing but praise for Mr Cook's admission the new laws were a mistake.

"They've written songs about sorry being the hardest word to say because people will pick on you," Mr Quigley said.

"But he's had the courage and the integrity to come and stand before Western Australia and say... we got it wrong."

Mr Quigley said scrutiny of the amendments would not be withheld but the WA government was ready to enact them when the Liberals and Nationals were ready.

Mr Cook said the Federal Government had not pressured him to scrap the laws because they were hurting the cause of the Voice.

"I've not had any communication with the Prime Minister's Office or any Federal ministers in relation to these laws," he said.

"The only contact I've had in relation to these laws is when I contacted the Prime Minister yesterday to announce I will be likely heading in this direction."

The backflip comes just over five weeks since the new laws came into effect and has led to calls for heads to roll over the saga.

Nationals MP Mia Davies says the WA Government's mishandling of Aboriginal heritage laws had set back the cause of reconciliation.

"It's set the entire community on edge and created angst where there needed to be good relationships being built," Ms Davies said.

Opposition planning minister Neil Thomson said the WA government had made an utter mess of the heritage laws.

"Someone should lose their job ... we'd like to see the Labor Government lose its job in 2025," he said, referring to the next state election.

Former Aboriginal affairs minister and Liberal MP Peter Collier blamed what he called WA Labor's contempt for the opposition and parliament.

"This is a complete unmitigated disaster," he said.

"Labor needed to stop treating the members opposite in the parliament as the enemy and allow the proper scrutiny of legislation."

Mr Cook said the original intent of the new legislation was to prevent another Juukan Gorge and he was committed to protecting First Nations culture and heritage.