TWO WA agricultural advocacy groups have withdrawn their support from a letter to the Premier and Aboriginal Affairs Minister by WAFarmers, requesting that several changes be made to the Aboriginal Cultural Heritage (ACH) Act.
In the draft letter, which was supplied to Farm Weekly last Thursday, WAFarmers, the Pastoralists and Graziers' Association (PGA) of WA and the WA Grains Group (WAGG) called for "the legal status of the ACH Act to be clarified as to its power to override private property rights by the States Solicitors Office and, if needed, tested through the courts".
However if, subject to the ACH Act, freehold property rights are overridden, the groups proposed the State fund a comprehensive heritage survey across the Wheatbelt, Great Southern and South West farming estate region "to identify and map those physical sites of significant aboriginal cultural heritage that exists on undisturbed freehold farm land".
In the days since this information was supplied to Farm Weekly, PGA president Tony Seabrook confirmed his organisation and WAGG had opted out of co-signing the letter, partly due to it containing no reference to the State's pastoral land owners, which form about half of the PGA's membership base.
"The P in PGA stands for 'Pastoralists', so we need to represent them," Mr Seabrook said.
The other reason behind the group's withdrawal, according to Mr Seabrook, was that the move could open the opportunity for the Aboriginal Affairs Minister Tony Buti to enter into "cumbersome, drawn out and unwanted discussions".
"We need a clear, hard hitting total rebuttal of this legislation," Mr Seabrook said.
"The PGA's position is that the ACH Act is a poorly drafted piece of legislation that should be scrapped altogether."
A letter, set to be sent to PGA members today to clarify the group's position on the ACH Act states, "The PGA, as was written in our submission to the minister dated January 6, 2023, believes that 'At a minimum, the Act should be amended to include that all activities on existing pastoral leases and freehold farmland should be considered exempt, and not require approval".
"We will not agree to anything less," the letter said.
Despite the different approaches being taken by the agricultural advocacy groups, Mr Seabrook and WAFarmers president John Hassell both stressed the PGA and WAFarmers were still "very much united" on the issue.
"We are not divided and both groups remain rock solid in our criticism of this legislation, " Mr Seabrook said.
While acknowledging he was disappointed the PGA had opted out from co-signing the letter, Mr Hassell said he understood the group's position.
"The PGA have gotten to the point now that they just want the legislation thrown out," Mr Hassell said.
"We've gotten to the point where we aren't going to be satisfied until the legislation is changed, and I think that's very common across the industry.
"What worries me is that Minister Buti is just dishing out platitudes, saying he will make the changes but then they won't happen."
The draft letter, which is now only set to be submitted by WAFarmers, calls for exemptions to be made for freehold farmland which has been "disturbed, developed or cultivated" for many years, as well as compensation for freehold property owners where there is the potential for Aboriginal cultural heritage sites to impact on their land values.
It also calls for there to be a cap of $1000-$2000 imposed on the cost of heritage surveys.
Following the WAFarmers' 'Let Farmers Keep Farming' meeting in Katanning last Monday, the State opposition and The Nationals WA party leader Shane Love invited WAFarmers, PGA and other industry delegates to attend State Parliament on Tuesday, August 8, to put forward the motions which were carried on the ACH Act, as well as present the letter to the State government.
Mr Hassell said he had heard from many people across the industry who had indicated their interest in attending parliament next week to show their support.
"There were about 400 people that said they wanted to come to the Katanning meeting but just couldn't get there," Mr Hassell said.
"But it is good when people show their support, as we need this government to realise just how damaging this bill really is."
