Slade Brockman (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister representing the Minister for the Environment and Water (Senator Wong) to questions asked by Senator Cash and myself today relating to Aboriginal cultural heritage.

The Labor government says that there's nothing to see here. Of the federal Aboriginal cultural heritage act there's 'nothing to see here'. The trouble with that is that's exactly what the state Labor government said when they passed this legislation through the state parliament. In fact, they put it through as urgent rushed legislation to deal with a very narrow issue—the Juukan Gorge issue. They said: 'Don't worry about this legislation. It's all good. We've checked everything out. It's tickety-boo. We don't need a parliamentary inquiry into it. We don't need to look at the impacts on farmers. We don't need to look at the impacts on regional communities. We don't need to look at the impacts on mining. It's all fine. We'll just rush it through parliament. We've got the numbers. Don't worry about it.'

We get worried when we hear the federal Labor government say, 'We've got a cultural heritage act in the works; we've committed to doing it,' but they can't reveal any detail about it. As far as I can tell, there's been zero consultation with the agricultural community about the form of this legislation. There's been zero consultation with the opposition about it. The shadow minister has told me directly that he has not been approached by the minister; he hasn't been invited to any consultation or asked about the coalition's views on these issues. The government says, 'It used to be bipartisan!' Sorry, but that doesn't sound very bipartisan, if you're not talking to the shadow minister about this at all.

You're not talking to the farming community. You're not talking to regional communities. I was in Katanning a week ago, when 650 locals turned up to a town hall meeting, concerned about the impacts of this legislation. That's 650 people in a community of 3,500 people. Think about that for a moment. Think about what that sort of a percentage would be in the city. There were plenty of people there who weren't directly affected by the state Labor legislation. One woman stood up. She had a B&B on a small block of land. She said: 'I'm not impacted by this legislation, but I'm here because I care. I care about my community. I care about the farmers. I care about the other businesses that are trying to operate in this community.'

I went to another community function in Dawesville. Again, Dawesville is an urban area; it's on the outer fringes of the Perth metro region, but it's an urban area. There'd be a few blocks over 1,100 square metres, but certainly not the majority. That room was full to overflowing. There were over 250 people in that room. The level of concern about this legislation is something that, quite literally, I've not seen before, certainly in my time in this place.

Senator Wong says, 'The opposition is just trying to stir things up about the Voice.' Senator Cash didn't mention the Voice. I didn't mention the Voice. Those meetings weren't called because of the Voice; they were called because the community is deeply concerned about where this is heading. Those opposite can say, 'This is all just a state Labor government,' but the point is: it is a state Labor government—a state Labor government who also said, 'Nothing to see here.'