Compliance with Indigenous cultural heritage legislation in Queensland: perceptions, realities and prospects

Since 1959, various pieces of legislation have been enacted in Queensland which include provisions for the protection of Indigenous cultural heritage. To date there has been very limited assessment of compliance with or the efficacy of these laws. The number of prosecutions under both Commonwealth and State legislative regimes is difficult to measure, but deemed to be low. This article explores a broad range of explanations both for the lack of prosecutions and also for the lack of research on compliance in general. It provides examples of prosecutions and attempted prosecutions under the various legislative regimes in Queensland, demonstrating that the reasons for compliance/non-compliance are complex. It is proposed that cultural heritage legislation in Queensland needs to be developed and controlled by a responsible government authority that can set standards and monitor all aspects of cultural heritage management. Cultural heritage management should also be incorporated at every level of environmental planning. Reporting of all cultural heritage activities should be mandatory. The current largely self-assessable and minimally regulated legislation fails to meet best practice cultural heritage management standards and its effectiveness is also difficult to measure.