Sarah-Jane Tasker: Premier Roger Cook may live to regret comments about new Aboriginal cultural heritage laws

Newly installed Premier Roger Cook shot out of the gates in his first question time in the top gig this week. He wasted no time in setting the tone for how he’ll lead when on the floor of Parliament during a heated question time on Tuesday. Cook wasn’t having it when the Opposition raised concerns about his Government’s Aboriginal cultural heritage laws, scheduled to come into effect on July 1. He rubbished calls for the introduction of the new laws to be delayed amid concerns the services needed to support the changes aren’t yet up and running and among confusion about some of the aspects. Cook likened the Opposition’s concerns to the Liberal government’s opposition to Federal native title laws in the early 1990s. “Every time, like a dog returning to its vomit, these guys come out and trot out these straw man arguments to attempt to distract the members of the community,” he said. Question time can be fiery and it can get ugly and nasty things are often said. But I’m not sure Cook’s comments and the tone he took is helpful given he’s now Premier of this State. There are legitimate concerns about the laws and the calls for it to be delayed are by groups who support the implementation, they just feel it’s not ready to roll out in a couple of weeks. The last thing Cook needs as the new boss of WA is to oversee a botched roll out of a very important piece of legislation. And it’ll be his above comments on record as to how he responded to those concerns.