From the Legislative Council’s Estimates and Financial Operations Committee:

Hon Steve Martin:

Changing tack again, minister. Also on page 3 [Of the DPIRD Annual Report] it talks about:

“A key achievement this year was the launch of our Aboriginal Heritage Management system…“

I have got a couple of questions about that. Actually, what is the DPIRD Aboriginal Heritage Management system?

Hon Jackie Jarvis:

That is regional development, which obviously I am covering for Minister Dawson, but I might ask [DPIRD Employee] to provide some advice.

DPIRD Employee:

Following the changes that were made to the Aboriginal Heritage Act and previously the previous legislation, DPIRD worked through its own system for both training staff but also managing Aboriginal heritage sites where identified. We have obviously got a large agricultural footprint across the department. Some of our fisheries pieces and regional development pieces also obviously touch on catching on Aboriginal heritage sites. So we built a system within the department to essentially train people in how to identify sites, how to manage sites once identified, and a process map from kind of start of activity through to seeking approvals if required.

Hon Steve Martin:

You mean sites that you own or control?

DPIRD Employee:

So if we take some of our agricultural researchers, they are doing work on sites that we own, for example, the Katanning Research Station, but they may also be doing field trials on the land with private farms or on other land and so we have trained everyone across the department to be able to go through the proper processes set up by the Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage to identify where there might be a risk of Aboriginal heritage disturbance, what to do if that is the case, the procedures to follow in managing those instances.

Hon Steve Martin:

What is the budget for that program?

DPIRD Employee:

I would have to take that on notice, but I can tell you that it is one FTE with some support from a second staff member. We have this year delivered face-to-face training to about 750 staff across the department. So, yes, that is the rough quantum, but if you want something more detailed we can take it on notice.

Hon Steve Martin:

Can we get that on notice?

[Answered later by Minister Jarvis]

For the financial year 2024-25, the cost for the development and operational rollout of the Aboriginal Heritage Management System was $88,000. Estimated salaries and oncosts to directly  support development and rollout were $290,000.