Eight countries back Australia’s push to add WA rock art to World Heritage list hours before crunch meeting

Environment minister Murray Watt is in Paris for the World Heritage committee meeting alongside a delegation from the WA state government and the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation. Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

The Australian government has secured the backing of at least eight members of the 21-country World Heritage committee as it lobbies to quell concerns about the impacts of industrial emissions on Indigenous rock art at Murujuga and have the Western Australia site inscribed on the World Heritage list.

The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, has been in Paris for the meeting since Wednesday, alongside a delegation from the WA state government and the Murujuga Aboriginal Corporation, which has led the nomination.