The Joint Standing Committee on Northern Australia to inquire into and report on, by 9 December 2020:
The destruction of 46,000 year old caves at the Juukan Gorge in the Pilbara region of Western Australia with particular reference to:
(a)
the operation of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 1972 (WA) and approvals provided under the Act;
(b)
the consultation that Rio Tinto engaged in prior to the destruction of the caves with Indigenous peoples;
(c)
the sequence of events and decision-making process undertaken by Rio Tinto that led to the destruction;
(d)
the loss or damage to the Traditional Owners, Puutu, Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people, from the destruction of the site;
(e)
the heritage and preservation work that has been conducted at the site;
(f)
the interaction, of state indigenous heritage regulations with Commonwealth laws;
(g)
the effectiveness and adequacy of state and federal laws in relation to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage in each of the Australian jurisdictions;
(h)
how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural heritage laws might be improved to guarantee the protection of culturally and historically significant sites;
(i)
opportunities to improve indigenous heritage protection through the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999; and
(j)
any other related matters