Calls by the parliamentary inquiry into Rio Tinto’s Juukan Gorge debacle for a federal takeover of Indigenous heritage laws will no doubt be raising eyebrows across the mining and resources industry.
There’s no doubt that failures at the state level were major contributors to Rio’s willingness and ability to destroy the ancient heritage sites – a fact that caused enormous damage to Australia’s international reputation, not just Rio’s.
As the committee says bluntly, on issues from Juukan Gorge to the loss of ancient rock art on the Burrup Peninsula – and similar matters across the country – “states have failed” on heritage matters.
“This report has demonstrated that time and time again, states have prioritised development over the protection of cultural heritage – including through the enactment of site-specific development legislation intended to further dispossess Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people,” the report says.
And they have a fair point.
But that is a separate question from whether the best solution is the imposition of a new federal legislative regime on top of the mishmash of existing state laws – which are often, as the committee report makes clear, also at odds with other state laws.
The same argument has been had over environmental approvals for resources and industrial developments.
And the best public policy outcome has the same solution: legislate once, and do it properly.
If that is best done at the federal level, then the states should hand over their powers.
But, in any case, it seems unlikely whether any of the committee’s recommendations will be enacted any time soon.
With a federal election only six months away, it is unlikely that either of the major political parties will be in a hurry to make commitments to new laws that will inevitably be contentious.
The fact that the government of WA Labor Premier Mark McGowan is still yet to pass a new Aboriginal Heritage Act – despite circulating draft legislation a year ago and enjoying an unstoppable majority in both houses of parliament – is a firm pointer to the fate of the recommendations made by the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia on Monday.
The destruction of Juukan Gorge caused enormous outrage, as did the fact that state laws didn’t protect heritage sites. But clearly that was not enough to sustain any real momentum for urgent legislative change.
Until there is, the issue will largely rest on the corporate goodwill of mining companies.
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