Looming legislative changes aimed at boosting protection for Aboriginal heritage sites in Western Australia are unlikely to prevent their destruction or stymie expansion by mining companies that are under intense pressure over their preservation practices. Rio Tinto group’s decision last month to carry out explosions that saw the destruction of a 40 000-year-old site in the centre of the nation’s iron-ore industry has sparked widespread controversy, scrutiny from investors and calls for legal reform.
The new laws will include more precise legal definitions of what constitutes Aboriginal heritage, modified financial penalties for misdemeanors and the encouragement of agreements between Aboriginal people and other land use proponents, according to the state government.
While the proposed legislation embodies significant changes on paper, they will do little to prevent miners in practice from getting their way in land rights matters, according to Kate Galloway, an associate professor at Queensland’s Griffith Law School who specializes in land and property rights.