CALLS FOR INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS MINISTER TO TAKE CARE OF CULTURAL HERITAGE

Tanya Plibersek gives her response to the Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia's reports on the destruction of cultural heritage at Juukan Gorge.

Campaign group GetUp! have called for the Federal Indigenous Affairs Minister to become responsible for Aboriginal cultural heritage legislation, rather than the Environment Minister.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek announced last week the government will create new cultural heritage legislation in response to an inquiry into the destruction of Juukan Gorge.

GetUp! First Nations Campaign Director and Goreng Goreng woman Amy Gordon said her group welcomed Ms Plibersek’s announcement.

“[Minister Plibersek] said they will take up most of the recommendations from that inquiry,” she explained.

“The Act will be co-designed with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

“There’ll be veto powers for Traditional Owners, and there’ll also be harsher penalties for corporations who destroy cultural heritage.”

Last week Ms Plibersek said the government had not decided whether it would accept the inquiry’s recommendation that responsibility for the legislation be given to the Indigenous Affairs Minister.

Ms Gordon said it made sense for cultural heritage matters to be part of the Indigneous Affairs portfolio.

“There’s a lot of complexities around cultural heritage, and we need a Department and a Minister that understands those complexities,” she said.

“What we saw with Juukan was that it was being passed between the Environment and the Aboriginal Affairs Ministers.”