Explainer-Western Australia ditches Aboriginal heritage protection act

FILE PHOTO: A protester holds a placard as she stands outside the venue for a meeting between Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott and forty of the nation's most influential Indigenous representatives in Sydney, Australia, July 6, 2015. REUTERS/David Gray/File Photo

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Western Australia state has scrapped new Aboriginal heritage protection laws after just five weeks because of opposition from landowners.

The decision, denounced by Indigenous groups, comes in the run-up to an increasingly divisive referendum on whether to give Indigenous people a greater say over polices that affect them.