Page 5563 - Week 17 - Wednesday, 4 December 1991
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MR JENSEN: Yes. Restricted information is defined, on page 23, as follows:
"restricted information", in relation to an Aboriginal place, means information which is the subject of a declaration under subsection 81(1).
That is the subclause that we are talking about at the moment. It reads:
Where, in the Minister's opinion, the public disclosure of particular information about the location or nature of an Aboriginal place would be likely to have a significant adverse effect on -
(a) Aboriginal tradition; or
(b) the heritage significance of the place;
the Minister shall, in writing, declare that information to be restricted information for the purposes of this Act.
This, of course, comes up under the Heritage Objects Register, which I will get to later on as well. This amendment has been proposed because it is my view, and the view of others that I have spoken to, that the Aboriginal organisation that has custody of this restricted information should provide agreement for its release.
I know that Mr Wood will argue that this would make it very difficult for a lessee who has an area on his or her property which contains, as far as the Aboriginals are concerned, a sacred site for all intents and purposes and there is information related to that sacred site which should not readily be made available to the community. It would seem to me that in such a case it would be sufficient for the lessee to know that the location of the site on his or her property is, in fact, restricted information.
I do not believe that more than that would be necessary in cases when we are dealing with traditional information. Those of us who have had some dealings in this area are aware of the sensitivity which the Aboriginal community has with respect to this particular sort of information, particularly in those areas of a more traditional nature. We should never forget that, although the members of the Aboriginal society living in the ACT at the moment no longer live in some of the more traditional ways in which their brothers and sisters in parts of the Northern Territory, Queensland and Western Australia live, that does not mean that they do not have the same sorts of affinities, spiritual contacts and relationships with areas within their Dreamtime.
We have to remember that, well before we came to this place, members of the Aboriginal nation, if you like, and the tribes that lived in this area moved through this area freely before borders were put in place. I would suggest that this is still relevant to those societies who live in
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