In Budget Estimates today, Aboriginal Affairs Minister Roger Jaensch refused to commit to ensuring Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes are properly protected in the long overdue Aboriginal Heritage Act. Instead, he flagged bringing inadequate new legislation to the Parliament and deferring action on the most critical element for “more consideration”.
Under questioning from the Greens, Minister Jaensch argued that “confusion” among sections of the non-Aboriginal community, like developers, is a reason to kick cultural landscape protections down the road.
Tasmania’s Aboriginal Heritage Act has long been criticised as a woefully inadequate ‘stones and bones’ approach, that only offers limited protection to archaeological sites like caves, graves, art sites and living places.
A government review of the Aboriginal Heritage Act in 2021 officially acknowledged the current law does not work or “. . . provide effective mechanisms for protection, nor adequately consider the significance of Aboriginal heritage in the context of Aboriginal culture’.
It is eight years since a Liberal Heritage minister called the current act “shamefully disrespectful”, and three years since the Government formally admitted our laws are failing. Recognising and protecting Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes is the missing link in our heritage protection legislation. The minister’s own Aboriginal Heritage Council has long identified this as an overdue and urgent reform.
It seems Jeremy’s Rockliff’s Government is planning on letting down Aboriginal people again. We sincerely hope they listen to community concerns in the consultation around the Exposure Draft of the legislation.
