If the changes were all taken up, the Aboriginal Heritage Council would move from being an advisory body to one with real power. The ability to enter land to investigate and to bring its own prosecutions would take away its reliance on the State Government to defend Indigenous heritage interests. Local RAPs would have the right to sue developers for civil damages over heritage destruction. They could refuse to approve so-called Cultural Heritage Management Plans (CHMPs), effectively vetoing development.
Starting with the controversial declaration of English as ‘our national language’ (which has no basis in law), and ending on an anxiety-inducing TBC, the proposal is as offensive as it is worrying. Considering the strategic linguicide inflicted by colonists on First Nations people, and the historical use of language tests to discriminate against non-European migrants, since when has English, or its imposition, ever been democratic?