Former Liberal Wyatt to head WA’s new cultural heritage body
Mr Wyatt will co-chair the key body responsible for helping resolve disagreements around Aboriginal cultural heritage.
The Cook government has recruited former federal Liberal MP Ken Wyatt to oversee the key body at the centre of Western Australia’s controversial new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act.
Mr Wyatt, who served as minister for Indigenous Australians under the Morrison government, has accepted an offer to become the co-chair of WA’s Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Council.
The council responsibilities will include facilitating negotiations between proponents and Aboriginal parties when agreement cannot be reached. The body also provides advice to the state government and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, and designates the local Aboriginal cultural heritage services, or LACHS, that will be responsible for signing off on works under the new regulations.
Mr Wyatt’s recruitment could cause further bad blood between him and the Liberal Party, given the opposition at both state and federal level has attacked the Cook government over the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act.
Mr Wyatt formally quit the Liberal Party early this year after the federal partyroom decided to oppose the voice referendum.
The act, which comes into effect from Saturday, has been the subject of intense debate amid fears from some stakeholders that the changes could cause major disruption.
The opposition has been highly critical of what it says is the rushed introduction of the new system, with a petition calling for a six-month delay recently garnering almost 30,000 signatures.
The new act has been under design for the past five years and was finalised in the wake of Rio Tinto’s detonation of the Juukan Gorge rockshelters.
While Premier Roger Cook has been steadfast that there will be no delay, on Wednesday he defended the government’s last-minute decision to give mining companies another year to put heritage surveys in place.
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