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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 09 Hansard (Tuesday, 17 August 2004) . . Page.. 3766 ..

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 26, as amended, agreed to.

Clauses 27 and 28, by leave, taken together and agreed to.

Proposed new clause 28A.

MR WOOD (Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Arts and Heritage, and Acting Minister for Health) (8.07): I move amendment No 15 circulated in my name which inserts a new clause 28A [see schedule 3 at page 3803]. This new provision will clarify machinery for the Heritage Council, thus enabling it to deal with vexatious or repetitious nominations without further procedure. A person who is using the process to create a problem, or who will not accept the decision of council on a nomination, will not be able to force council through a pointless process.

MS DUNDAS (8.07): I support this amendment as I believe it gives the Heritage Council the important power to dismiss vexatious or frivolous nominations. It has been decided previously that nominations for a place or object that are not to be registered can also be dismissed if there are no new grounds for registration. The Heritage Council has an important job to do. At the moment the unit is frantically working through quite a large backlog of work. We cannot allow the council to be bogged down in the future under the weight of nominations that do not have any merit. To many people heritage is a value of significance. We must give the Heritage Council the power it needs and the opportunity to protect and preserve heritage for the whole territory.

MRS DUNNE (8.08): The Liberal opposition supports this amendment because, as Ms Dundas said earlier, it gives council the discretion to dismiss frivolous, vexatious or repetitious nominations. I hope this is a sign of things to come in relation to other sorts of frivolous, vexatious and repetitious complaints.

Proposed new clause 28A agreed to.

Clause 29.

MR WOOD (Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for Arts and Heritage, and Acting Minister for Health) (8.09): I move amendment No 16 circulated in my name [see schedule 3 at page 3803]. The existing wording in clause 29 requires the Heritage Council to consult with the Aboriginal community before provisionally registering a nominated Aboriginal place or object. This new wording will require council to consult before provisionally registering a place or object, even if such a place or object has not been nominated and council is provisionally registering a place or object of its own making.

Amendment agreed to.

Clause 29, as amended, agreed to.

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