The Traditional Owners of a sacred cave destroyed by Rio Tinto in 2020 says the Cook Government's plans to repeal the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act 2021 demonstrates First Nations people and their culture are its lowest priority.
The Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura Aboriginal Corporation (PKKP) have threatened to disregard compliance-driven heritage requirements as the WA government scrapped its controversial Aboriginal cultural heritage laws, five weeks after they came into effect.
PKKP land and heritage manager Jordan Ralph said reverting to the culturally-inappropriate 1972 legislation was among the worst outcomes for Aboriginal cultural heritage protection in Australia.
"The PKKP are outraged that they, and Traditional Owners in WA, are back to square one, and the Cook Government is reverting to laws that allowed to destruction of Juukan Gorge," Dr Ralph said.
"The safeguards that were supposed to be provided by the 2021 legislation have now been taken away and we will revert back to an outdated definition of Aboriginal cultural heritage and an approvals process that benefits industry over our Country."
Dr Ralph said the return of the section 18 process was a disgrace and PKKP had lost faith in the State to adequately protect culturally-significant places in WA.
"Our focus has been developing co-management agreements with mining companies to ensure there is clear communication and a joint responsibility for protecting our cultural heritage," he said.
"We were promised that would be backed up by protection under the law."
The PKKP has demanded Aboriginal Affairs minister Tony Buti clarify a range of issues after the WA Government's "disappointing" change of heart.
"This is nothing short of a cluster and again, First Nations people are being treated as second class citizens in their own Country," Dr Ralph said.
The Juukan Gorge site in the Hamersley Ranges, about 60km from Mt Tom Price, is sacred to PKKP Traditional Owners, and showed 46,000 years of continual human occupation and a 4000-year-old genetic link to today's Traditional Owners.
Several high-profile Rio Tinto executives were stood down after the incident, which was condemned globally and led to a federal parliamentary inquiry.
The catastrophic destruction occurred after Rio Tinto was granted ministerial consent to blast the site under the now-infamous section 18 process from the 1972 laws.
Proposed amendments to that Act, announced today by Mr Cook, would see proponents and Native Title parties have the same right of review for Section 18 decisions, with clear timelines and an ability for the Premier to call-in a decision of 'State significance', to act in the interests of all Western Australians.
"WA is home to some of the world's oldest known Aboriginal cultural heritage, we want to preserve this into the future, and ensure Western Australians can continue to live their lives and reach their full potential," Mr Cook said after announcing amendments to the 1972 Act on Tuesday.
In early July PKKP entered into agreements with Black Cat Syndicate Limited for the co-management of mining tenements at the Paulsens Gold Operation.
A week later the Indigenous corporation signed an MOU with Fortescue Metals, aimed at ensuring joint management of current and future projects on PKKP lands, which cover nearly 11,000sqm of sparsely-populated areas west of Karijini National Park, including FMG's Eliwana mine in the Pilbara region.
