11 Aboriginal A ffairs Commitee AMEC R eport 2018 The AMEC Aboriginal A fairs Committee provides advice to the AMEC Council and Ex ecutive and develops policy positions on issues related to Native Title Aboriginal cultural heritage protection and approvals and other issues that may impact on the Association s membership The focus for 2018 continued to be on increased clarity and certainty reducing industry costs and delays in obtaining heritage clearances and improving the native title system Native Title Act reforms The Federal Government released an Options P aper for consultation in late 2017 with the intent of improving the efciency efectiveness and timeliness of the Native Title system AMEC responded with a comprehensive submission in 2018 aimed at achieving these critically important objectives The package of R eforms are lik ely to be introduced into P arliament in 2019 W e are also seeking to separately address concerns around authorisation of section 31 Agreements and validation of mining leases that have been purported to be granted and whose validity might be afected by the failure to have strictly complied with the requirements of the W A Mining Act W e understand that legislation to address concerns around section 31 Agreements may be introduced in 2019 Aboriginal Heritage legislative and administrative reform AMEC continued to be represented on the high level W estern A ustralian Aboriginal Heritage and Native Title Industry Liaison Committee It is chaired by the W estern A ustralian Department of Planning L ands and Heritage DPLH and comprises industry bodies and various Government agencies The Committee provides a central forum to address industry concerns with the Aboriginal Heritage and land access regimes and assist government in reforming and implementing policy procedures and regulations During the year the W A Government released a P aper on proposed reform of the Aboriginal Heritage Act AMEC made a comprehensive submission with the majority of the recommendations being of an administrative nature W e anticipate further consultation on the reform process during 2019 National benchmarking of heritage related fees and charges AMEC continues to be concerned with the increasing range and quantum of fees and charges associated with site clearances and cultural heritage approvals W e continue to request case studies from members to support our concerns However the e xistence of confdentiality clauses in relevant Agreements has made this a very difcult e x ercise This has resulted in a lack of transparency and accountability around this signifcant issue for industry