Native title year in review 2024-2025

What you need to know

• It is more than five years since the Juukan Gorge incident, and calls remain for legislative reform. The Federal Government has renewed its partnership with the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance to work together on developing new Federal cultural heritage legislation (extending the formal agreement to June 2026). However, no reports, papers or other documents have been published since 2022.
• Most State and Territory Governments are in the process of reviewing their cultural heritage legislation. Several of these reviews have been going on for many years with little apparent progress. Only South Australia and the Northern Territory have introduced (or passed) reforms in the last 12 months.
• Since the return to the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA) in late 2023 (with some amendments), the WA Government is undertaking an initial review to identify policy and other improvements that can be made to the WA regime.

What you need to do

• Be aware that, although law reform around heritage protection has slowed, the incorporation of First Nations' viewpoints in the environmental approval process continues.
• There will be further law reform, and the trends are pretty clear. Don’t assume that what is required in 2025 will be sufficient in the future. Monitor announcements about Federal cultural heritage law reform by the new Federal Minister for the Environment and Water.

Introduction

We have reported on the status of proposed reforms to Federal and State/Territory cultural heritage protection legislation annually since our 2020 Native Title Year in Review.

The raft of inquiries, reports and discussion papers since the Juukan Gorge incident have not yet led to the legislative reform that all stakeholders anticipated. Notwithstanding the lack of legislative reform however, the fundamental reset of cultural heritage protection practices that we predicted in 2020 has certainly occurred. Corporate Australia has made significant policy and practical changes to the way that it does business with First Nations communities that has delivered meaningful outcomes.

We summarise the current status of Federal and State/Territory reforms below.

Federal reform

We wrote about Federal cultural heritage reform in our Native Title Year in Review 2023-2024 article, "Little movement on Federal heritage reform in 2023 – but stakeholders and industry are instigating change". Very little has occurred in this space in the last 12 months (at least publicly). In fact, the Federal Government has not published any reports, papers or other documents relating to cultural heritage reform since 2022.

In June 2024, the Federal Government renewed its partnership with the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance, extending the formal agreement to June 2026. The intended outcomes of the extended agreement are:

• The co-design of reforms to Commonwealth First Nations Cultural Heritage legislation that reflects the content of the Commonwealth response to the two reports of the Juukan Gorge inquiry and the preparation of proposed amendments to Commonwealth First Nations Cultural Heritage legislation to give effect to the reforms referred to above.
• An implementation plan, including transitional arrangements, communications strategy, and related framework to identify resources necessary to implement the reformed First Nations cultural heritage protection law.
• Clear linkages with the new environmental law arising as a response to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Act) review and how these two pieces of legislation work together.

The 2024-2025 Federal Budget's Future Made in Australia – Strengthening Approvals Processes section included $17.7 million to reduce the backlog and support administration of complex applications under the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Heritage Protection Act 1984 (Cth) and progress the reform of Australia’s cultural heritage laws. There were no further allocations in the 2025-2026 Federal Budget.

The Federal Government has not yet announced its priorities, and it remains to be seen whether the appointment of Senator the Hon Murray Watt as Minister for the Environment and Water will lead to progress in this difficult area.

On 23 May 2025 the Minerals Council of Australia and the First Nations Heritage Protection Alliance jointly announced that they have agreed on principles that can clear a path for the re-elected Government to provide lasting protection of cultural heritage. They said "A starting place… is identifying in our laws who speaks for country and [a] streamlined process for engaging with those that have cultural authority in a particular region. This will provide protection and certainty for community and industry so business can create new economic assets and opportunities, while protecting our cultural assets."

The Federal Government has not yet responded to this statement.

State reform

We wrote about the current status of each State and Territory's reforms to cultural heritage legislation in our Native Title Year in Review 2023-2024 article, "Heritage reforms stall as States wait for lead from reform shy Commonwealth". We outline the current status of reforms below.

SA: The Aboriginal Heritage (Miscellaneous) Amendment Act 2024 (SA) commenced on 1 January 2025. It made various amendments to the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1988 (SA), including the introduction of a new, lower-level offence for harm to heritage, expanded investigatory powers, amendments to timeframes for the bringing of prosecutions, significantly increased financial penalties, new powers for courts to impose non-financial penalties for a breach of the Act, and clarified obligations to report Aboriginal cultural heritage discoveries.

We wrote about SA's proposed reforms in our Native Title Year in Review 2022-2023 article, "Joining the national movement – South Australia begins process for cultural heritage law reform".

NT: The new Government introduced the Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Legislation Amendment Bill 2025 (NT) in March 2025 to amend the Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act 1989 and the Northern Territory Aboriginal Sacred Sites Regulation 2004. According to the Explanator Notes, the reforms are intended to ensure the Act, and the Regulation are both contemporary and remain effective in achieving their purpose. The Bill passed on 15 May 2025 and commenced on 30 May 2025

There are three specific changes:

• Inserting new provisions to allow for the transfer of authority certificates and the addition of named parties to an existing authority certificate, with no change to the original protections, limitations or controls put on the land to protect the relevant sacred sites. This reform is designed to reduce regulatory burden and red tape in long-term projects involving multiple parties by eliminating the need for each new party to apply for a separate authority certificate for the same work and land, ensuring continuity and efficiency.
• Inserting a new process for the AAPA to enter into enforceable undertakings with a person in relation to alleged contravention of the Act or an authority certificate. The purpose of enforceable undertakings is to achieve better compliance with the Act than would result from criminal or civil enforcement action alone, and in particular allow for the AAPA to ensure that remediation occurs where required.
• Modernising and clarifying the provisions governing the appointment and termination of members of the AAPA. New provisions confirm the existing practice that two of the ten members of the AAPA are appointed by the Minister.

The NT's Legislative Scrutiny Committee recommended that the Bill be passed with a number of minor amendments. It also recommended that, should the Act be subject to further reform, consideration be given to including a provision similar to section 18 of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA), whereby if the Minister becomes aware of new information about an Aboriginal site on land that is the subject of an authority certificate, the Minister may amend, revoke or confirm the authority certificate.

Qld: The new Government has not announced its position on cultural heritage legislative reform since its election in October 2024. The latest development in this space remains the previous Government's Options Paper in December 2021.

However, Queensland's cultural heritage regime was modified by the July 2025 introduction of new Chapter 3A to the Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games Arrangements Act 2021. These amendments introduced an alternative process for developing cultural heritage management plans for venues, villages and transport infrastructure associated with the 2032 Brisbane Olympic Games. The key features of the alternate process include:

• a truncated negotiation timeframe for a cultural heritage plan;
• a requirement for the parties to negotiate in good faith;
• an avenue to agree a single cultural heritage plan with potentially multiple relevant Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parties for the project area;
• a requirement for the proponent to offer to pay the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander parties' reasonable costs of negotiating the plan up to a stated prescribed maximum amount; and
• the introduction of a 'default plan' that will apply in the event the parties are unable to agree a plan.

WA: It has been almost 24 months since Western Australia reverted to the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA), with some key changes. Since then, the State has seen a highly publicised prosecution of a landowner for destruction of Aboriginal cultural heritage.

The WA Government has recently announced a review of the interaction between Native Title Act and Aboriginal cultural heritage processes with a focus on the mining and exploration sector. This review is intended to improve the experience of heritage processes for both native title parties and proponents. It is not intended to propose legislative changes. Instead, policy approaches may shift to drive better outcomes and efficiencies. This could include changes to the role of heritage protection agreements in the grant of tenure and use of the expedited procedure process under the Native Title Act.

NSW: The NSW Government is still committed to progressing its decade-old reform plans, by building on the foundations of the draft Cultural Heritage Bill 2018.

According to Aboriginal Affairs NSW, it is committed to delivering standalone legislation within this term of Parliament (ie before March 2027). The Government has outlined an "ACH roadmap" that provides details on the transition to the new system.

Tas: The Tasmanian Government has not delivered on its commitment to deliver an exposure draft of new cultural heritage legislation in 2024. However, in March 2025 the Premier stated that the Government is committed to developing new, stronger, proactive Aboriginal cultural heritage protection legislation and is working through carefully and methodically with a large number of stakeholders to get the legislation right. The Tasmanian Government has also committed to other measures to support the proposed new legislation, including funding in the 2024-2025 State Budget for a new Aboriginal Heritage Register and training program for First Nations Tasmanians to become heritage consultants.

We wrote about Tasmania's proposed reforms in our Native Title Year in Review 2022-2023 article, "Tasmania continues to progress towards new Aboriginal cultural heritage protection legislation".

Vic: There are not currently any Government-led proposals for reform in Victoria, which has one of the most highly regarded legislative regimes in the country.

Key insights

The slow pace of reform, coupled with the demands of energy transition projects, has led to non-government players filling the gap with their own view of best practice. We wrote about this in detail in our Native Title Year in Review 2023-2024 article, "Little movement on Federal heritage reform in 2023 – but stakeholders and industry are instigating change".

Law reform in this area is hard but it will come, with certainty to be preferred over the variable self-regulation that presently operates. It is a mistake to assume that what is required in 2025 will be sufficient in the future. In the meantime, if the Federal Government's Nature Positive Reforms to the EPBC Act precede cultural heritage law reform, we may get a glimpse of its appetite for tackling these difficult issues.

Want to know more?

• Heritage reforms stall as States wait for lead from reform shy Commonwealth, 3 June 2024
• Little movement on Federal heritage reform in 2023 – but stakeholders and industry are instigating change, 27 May 2024
• WA Aboriginal heritage laws restored with key changes, 23 May 2024
• Tasmania continues to progress towards new Aboriginal cultural heritage protection legislation", 25 July 2023
• Joining the national movement – South Australia begins process for cultural heritage law reform", 25 July 2023
• No new Federal cultural heritage legislation in 2023 – but change is coming, 25 July 2023
• Federal Government releases response to Way Forward Report, 25 November 2022 — Covers the implications of the Way Forward Report and Never Again Report.
• Modernisation of cultural heritage protection legislation begins, 11 July 2022 — Covers the Way Forward Report