The new laws are GONE!

What happened to the new laws? They’re GONE! Perhaps surprisingly, Western Australia has scrapped the new divisive cultural heritage laws that were designed to protect Aboriginal cultural sites by forcing farmers and other landholders to pay for costly cultural surveys whenever they made changes to their own land, essentially making farming unfeasible and overly expensive. Thank goodness common sense prevailed. The laws were only in operation for 39 days! We even got a rare apology from a sitting leader with Premier Roger Cook actually saying sorry. But that shows you the benefit of ordinary legislation over constitutional changes, for example, those proposed in the upcoming Indigenous Voice to Parliament. Those changes would be much more permanent and much harder to revert. It would require public outrage and another referendum costing taxpayers a further hundreds of millions of dollars.

Amazingly, the Western Australian Government openly apologised for the new cultural laws, with Premier Cook stating, “Put simply, the laws went too far, were too prescriptive, too complicated, and placed unnecessary burdens on everyday Western Australian property owners. I understand that the legislation has unintentionally caused stress, confusion and division in the community, and for that I’m sorry.”

Aboriginal affairs minister, Tony Buti, said, “We have listened to the concerns raised and taken the time to assess its impact and now found a way forward that is fair, reasonable and responsible.”

Even the Chief Executive of the National Native Title Council, Jamie Lowe, stated, “The actual implementation of this has been an absolute disaster. Everyone has their issues with the laws. You get the result of this: A waste of taxpayers’ money, people’s time and energy and a net result of zero… The arrogance was there for all to see. First Nations groups didn’t want to be consulted to, they want to be worked with, and they want to actually be there throughout all these discussions.”

Ultimately, the Government have decided to revert to the original 50-year-old legislation with Premier Cook stating, “This is a government that listens to everyone in the community.” BULLS**T! “That is why, based on community feedback and following serious consideration, I and the government have made a decision to overturn the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act. We will restore the original Act from 1972 with some simple and effective amendments. Importantly, all WA property owners can continue to operate and manage their property just like they have for the past 50 years, without any fear of unknowingly disrupting cultural heritage sites.”

But perhaps the most important thing that we learnt, is that when farmers get angry, when they leave their properties and gather en masse, they have the power to change the government. Well done to the farmers, and all those who supported them. The new laws are GONE!

WA PREMIER ROGER COOK AXES ABORIGINAL CULTURAL HERITAGE LAWS AFTER OUTCRY BY LANDHOLDERS
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/aug/08/wa-repeals-axes-aboriginal-cultural-heritage-laws-premier-roger-cook

ULURU STATEMENT FROM THE HEART
https://ulurustatement.org/the-statement/

WESTERN AUSTRALIA DUMPS CONTROVERSIAL ABORIGINAL CULTURAL HERITAGE LAWS AFTER ‘BOTCHED’ ROLLOUT
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/western-australia-dumps-controversial-aboriginal-cultural-heritage-laws-after-botched-rollout/news-story/b5ac421a07e6a195cb9d14e1007fe24e

MUSIC
Allégro by Emmit Fenn