Mr. Love questions the Premier on the Aboriginal Affairs Minister's performance regarding the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act, citing widespread dissatisfaction. The Premier defends the consultation process and the legislation's intent.

AnsweredQoN 379Legislative Assembly
Asked
15 June 2023
Portfolio
Premier

QuestionView source ↗

ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS CULTURAL HERITAGE ACT —
IMPLEMENTATION
379. Mr R.S. LOVE to the Premier:
I
have a supplementary question. Given that many peak Indigenous bodies, industry
groups and more than 18 000 Western Australians have now signed a petition
agreeing that the Premier's minister has not performed in his role as
Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, how is this an acceptable standard for his
government?

AnswerView source ↗

The Minister for Aboriginal
Affairs, the previous Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and the Minister for
Aboriginal Affairs before that have been
working on this legislation for many years. A significant amount of
consultation was undertaken. Maybe at some point in those consultations
people were not paying as much attention as perhaps they could have, but that
is not from a lack of engagement and opportunity provided by the government to
engage with people.
As I said earlier in the week,
these numbers would now be out of date but over 1 000 people across 90
different meetings were consulted on this.
As I said, those meetings are going on this week. By now, over 1 500 people
would have been directly consulted, their questions answered and taken
through the steps of this legislation. As I said, these are not new laws; these
are modified laws to continue doing what we have been doing for 50 years, which
is to protect Aboriginal cultural heritage.

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