Pauline Hanson’s One Nation WA State Leader, Rod Caddies, has called for a whole-of-state Aboriginal cultural heritage survey to be conducted to definitively identify all sites that require protection.

“The recent ruling by a WA judge against a private property owner for building a culvert has highlighted the insanity of the current approach to Aboriginal Cultural Heritage,” said Mr. Caddies.

“We cannot have landholders held hostage by the Wagyl if they want to go about their business. The idea that a local authority can arbitrarily decide if something can be done or not based on mythology is a recipe for disaster.”

The WA Labor Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Act (ACHA), which was introduced and then hastily rescinded, made provisions for local Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Authorities to be created, to whom landowners would need to pay money in order to get approval for activities on private property.

“So basically, the laws that the Labor Party wants and will implement again will result in an extortion industry where landowners will be forced to pay money to a local Indigenous group in order to use their own private land,” said Mr. Caddies.

“This will not help with reconciliation; it will cause a lot of resentment and division in our communities.”

The WA Labor Government claimed the ACHA was needed to prevent a repeat of the Juukan Gorge incident, where ancient rock art in a rock shelter was demolished by Rio Tinto.

Mr. Caddies explained that the reason his party was demanding a whole-of-state survey of cultural heritage sites was to ensure all sites of real importance are protected.

“Aboriginal Cultural Heritage, like 10,000-year-old rock art, is certainly worth saving, but there is no reason we cannot give landowners absolute certainty by identifying all sites of significance and making it clear where they are, why they are significant, and how they should be protected.”

“By conducting a whole-of-state survey, we can decide as a community what needs to be protected and how it should be protected. Our modern culture is not compatible with regulations that are based on undocumented mythology.”

“This is why One Nation is the only party that landowners can trust to protect their private property rights,” said Mr. Caddies.