Garrett fails to halt heritage destruction

The headline sounded good: Garrett steps in to protect ancient Pilbara rock art. But if you read the article, it says nothing of the sort.

The Australian environment minister thinks “it’s highly regrettable that there’s been any destruction of rock art.” He makes encouraging noises about the value of Aboriginal heritage. However, the main point of the article is not about halting the destruction caused and planned by Woodside Petroleum, but whether federal or state government has control over planning decisions in certain parts of western Australia (where there are massive mineral and fossil fuel deposits). Seeing as national environmental or heritage listing is constantly over-ruled by corporate considerations, this seems a little irrelevant.

Peter Garrett, singer with the band Midnight Oil and onetime radical advocate of environmental and indigenous causes is now in a position of real power. But the compromises he has made – recently advocating for the hated dredging of Port Philip Bay and going along with the nonsensical woodchip plant in Tasmania – seem to show he has little of the ideological convictions he once espoused. Failing to call an immediate halt to the demolition of ancient landscapes in western Australia reflects this.

It would be great to be proved wrong and for the government to take real steps to preserve sites and places of outstanding cultural significance. Not just instituting superficial heritage assessments to tick boxes, but genuine conservation schemes. There’s not much to be optimistic about though: long time heritage campaigner Robbin Chapple thinks that federal control over development in the region would be like “putting Dracula back in charge of the blood bank.”

Tags: Burrup rock art, heritage destruction, heritage listing, Peter Garrett, Woodside Petroleum