By David Wright
BRISBANE — The Queensland Labor government's proposed indigenous heritage legislation continues the trend of both Labor and Liberal governments winding back the clock on land rights for Aboriginal people. Premier Peter Beattie's legislation works hand in hand with the federal Coalition government's native title legislation.
The key element of the proposed state legislation concerns the question of who makes the final decision about what is and is not a significant indigenous heritage area. While the views of relevant indigenous people may be sought, their assessments of the significance could be overridden or ignored by the chief executive of the administering government department.
Queensland Labor's model also fails to acknowledge indigenous ownership of indigenous cultural heritage, and there will be no independent indigenous agency with responsibility for protecting and managing cultural heritage.
Beattie has been attempting to sell the proposed legislation to the public on the grounds that it allows for broad consultation with Aboriginal people, but gives them no real decision making power. In other words, the government can ignore indigenous people's recommendations, which is what it already does.
Queensland Indigenous Working Group spokesperson Les Malezer said, "The only way to protect indigenous cultural heritage is to recognise indigenous people's ownership and heritage. Indigenous people must be in a position where they have the primary responsibility for managing their cultural heritage. It is in all our interests to put the owners of heritage ... in a position to negotiate constructively with developers and land users."
Democratic Socialist Party spokesperson Graham Matthews said: " This legislation reinforces the practice of indigenous people being told what is and isn't of cultural significance by politicians, public servants and big business. Aboriginal people must be given genuine land rights and real control over their own affairs. We will continue to campaign with Aboriginal people until they have won what is rightly theirs."