State Development Bill—Aboriginal Heritage Act
666. Hon Neil Thomson to the Leader of the House representing the Premier:
I refer to the announcement on the State Development Bill 2025 and the Premier's comments about reducing timeframes of approvals.
(1) Will the provisions in the bill apply to section 18 processes under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972?
(2) If yes to (1), is the intent of the timeframe notices that can be issued under the bill to seek to modify the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Committee's deliberation times?
(3) Do Western Australian native title representative bodies support the bill's potential modifications to the Aboriginal Heritage Act's section 18 timelines?
Hon Jackie Jarvis replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question. On behalf of the Leader of the House, the following response has been provided by the Premier.
(1) Timeframe notices can be applied to Aboriginal Heritage Act functions, this includes section 18 processes.
(2) No. The intent of these notices is that they are issued to expedite timeframes for assessment by the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage to allow the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Committee to make informed decisions about section 18 consents sooner.
(3) Aboriginal representative bodies were briefed on this bill and its interface with the Aboriginal Heritage Act. Representative bodies were informed that timeframe notices will focus on improving government processes and will not be used to compromise consultation processes with representative bodies or traditional owners.
