Parliamentary Questions

ABORIGINAL CULTURAL HERITAGE BILL 2021

1125. Hon WILSON TUCKER to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs:

(1) Has the government received feedback from stakeholders since the release of the final draft of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill 2021?

(2) If yes, can the minister please identify —

(a) how many pastoral, grazing and farming land use stakeholders have provided feedback on the final bill;

(b) how many mining, exploration and resource land use stakeholders have provided feedback on the final bill; and

(c) how many Aboriginal stakeholders have provided feedback on the final bill?

Hon STEPHEN DAWSON replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.

(1)–(2) The Department of the Premier and Cabinet has been engaging with stakeholders throughout the development and passage of the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Bill 2021. A consultation draft of the bill has been available since September 2020, with a total of 176 submissions received from a wide range of stakeholders including Aboriginal organisations, industry, government, land users and heritage professionals. A table with a breakdown of the submissions received by stakeholder group is below. It lists the stakeholder group and the number of respondents. I seek leave to have the response incorporated into Hansard.

Further, a table detailing the changes made to the bill since the release of the consultation draft has been available to the public on the WA government website since August 2021.