UN in ‘racism’ warning on WA’s new Aboriginal heritage laws

The proposed overhaul of Western Australia’s Aboriginal heritage laws that has angered many Indigenous groups has also caught the attention of the United Nations.

One of the Juukan Gorge caves.

The proposed overhaul of Western Australia’s Aboriginal heritage laws that has angered many Indigenous groups has also caught the attention of the United Nations, with the organisation warning that the new legislation may maintain the “structural racism” of the state’s heritage regime.

Marc Bossuyt, the vice-chairman of the UN’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, has written to Australia’s Geneva-based ambassador to the UN, Sally Mansfield, expressing concerns about the structure of WA’s new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill and warning that the Bill may fall short of international standards.

The new Bill was being designed well before Rio Tinto’s destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters in the Pilbara – carried out with full legal approval under WA’s longstanding Aboriginal Heritage Act – prompted intense scrutiny of WA’s legal protection of significant cultural sites. While the new legislation now before WA’s parliament has been welcomed by the mining sector, numerous Indigenous groups have spoken out about the updated regime.

Mr Bossuyt’s letter to Ms Mansfield echoed many of those concerns, such as the “overly wide discretion” that will sit with WA’s Aboriginal Affairs Minister and the lack of a requirement for free, prior and informed consent from Aboriginal traditional owners on decisions that could impact heritage sites.

“According to the information received, the discretionary power attributed to the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and the absence of effective remedies and legal redress for Aboriginal peoples to challenge his decisions will maintain the structural racism of the cultural heritage legal and policy scheme, which has already led to the destruction of Aboriginal cultural heritage in Western Australia,” he wrote.

Mr Bossuyt called on Ms Mansfield to provide more information to the committee about the status of the Bill.