THERE was a frosty reception for the only Labor MP to front a heated crowd at a WAFarmers meeting on the new Aboriginal Cultural Heritage (ACH) Act and live export last week.
Held in Katanning, Labor MP for the Agricultural Region, Darren West, was heckled by audience members as he defended his government's introduction of the new ACH legislation, which replaced the WA's 1972 Aboriginal Heritage Act on July 1.
With the seats for Federal Agriculture Minister Murray Watt and the State's Agriculture Minister Jackie Jarvis left noticeably bare, Mr West was left to battle the room on his own, and called for calm when members of the audience began to yell out at him during his speech saying, "Everyone is going to have their say and I'm not going to talk for long I promise - I came to listen".
Mr West conceded the "education-first" approach now being taken by the State government for the new act was because they had "botched the messaging".
"This bill is not to be feared," Mr West said.
"We took 18 months to implement this bill and the bill has just come into being.
"We've committed to another 12 months of an education-first policy, because we know it's confusing when legislation changes and we know there's concern in the community.
"We've appointed WAFarmers and the PGA (Pastoralists and Graziers' Association of WA) to that committee.
"We are not going to charge people on day one, unless it's a blatant disregard for that cultural heritage.
"We are going to spend the next 12 months working with the agricultural sector."
Mr West told the audience the bill applied more to WA mining companies that "drill, blast and dig" than the State's farmers, who he said had predominantly worked on top of the ground "for the last 100-150 years".
"Basically this comes down to common sense... you're either affected, you're not, or you're not sure," Mr West said.
"If you're not sure, we're putting in the resources to help and, if you are, we are putting in the resources to help.
"We are going to be rolling out a lot more information over the next 12 months."
Responding to Mr West's speech, which highlighted that the bill had been passed through the lower house in December 2021 with the support of The National WAs and WA Liberal Party, Liberal MP for the Mining and Pastoral Region Neil Thomson said the new legislation was the result of the bill being "rammed through" parliament under urgent bill provisions and Labor guillotining debate in the lower house.
"Darren West knows that it's convention when somebody then opposes a bill that you always stand with the government," Mr Thomson said.
"We made our position very clear that our position was not to oppose it.
"We did not have the time to take the draft which was 266 pages, and was dropped on us within a few hours of it being lobbed into the lower house for debate.
"We took the government on its word, because they assured us they would ensure the regulations would be workable.
"We saw the regulations come out in May this year and that's when everyone became concerned...that's when people power began to mobilise across the State.
"This is the most intrusive and debilitating piece of legislation that is going to affect farming and anyone that works the land in WA."
