Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment and Water) | Hansard source

I am delighted to receive this question from the Leader of the National Party and to say what a great thing it has been—I don't often say this about the former minister for the environment—to inherit these cultural heritage reforms at the very advanced stage that we've inherited them. What we're aiming to do as a government is make sure that we have better protection for First Nations heritage and more certainty for business, farmers and other land users. These twin objectives came out of some very substantial work done after the destruction of Juukan Gorge in two inquiries led by the member for Leichhardt. I thank him and the committee for the excellent work that they did coming out of Juukan Gorge.

If I could just take the parliament back for a moment to remind people of what happened there: a 46,000-year-old sacred site was destroyed by a mining company. The tragedy was that irreplaceable heritage was lost legally. It was done legally. What this parliament realised was that our laws were not fit for purpose. If 46,000-year-old sacred sites can be destroyed legally, those laws are not fit for purpose. So the previous government, coming out of those Juukan Gorge inquiries, which had a number of very substantial recommendations, set up a process with the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance. The former Minister for the Environment signed a contract with the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance to come up with an options paper. As I said, the work began under those opposite. We have released the options paper. Options papers are designed to begin conversations, and the former Minister for the Environment said very clearly that starting this national conversation was exactly the right thing to do.

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