Page 3294 - Week 10 - Thursday, 25 September 2014
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MR CORBELL (Molonglo—Attorney-General, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, Minister for the Environment and Minister for Capital Metro) (5.30): Pursuant to standing order 182A(c), and on behalf of Mr Gentleman, the Minister for Planning, I seek leave to move amendments circulated in Mr Gentleman’s name together as they are in response to comments made by the scrutiny of bills committee.
Leave granted.
MR CORBELL: On behalf of Mr Gentleman, I move amendments Nos 1 to 35 circulated in Mr Gentleman’s name together [see schedule 2 at page 3308]. I table a supplementary explanatory statement to the government amendments, along with a revised explanatory statement following the scrutiny of bills committee comments.
There are 35 government amendments. In the main, these amendments, all bar five, relate to the removal of ministerial call-in provisions. The five remaining amendments affect important concepts contained in the draft bill. The concepts affected are those which provide definitions for place, object, Aboriginal place, Aboriginal object and natural heritage significance.
Government amendment No 3 amends definitions for object and place. It ensures that the definitions provide clarity and certainty and clearly differentiates between the concepts of object and place. Government amendment No 4 clarifies the definitions for Aboriginal object and Aboriginal place. All Aboriginal places and objects are of significance to Aboriginal people. The intent of the definition is to ensure that all Aboriginal places and objects are protected by the legislation.
However, the definitions for Aboriginal place and Aboriginal object in the Heritage Act 2004 are problematic through their inclusion of terminology such as an Aboriginal place or object needing to have particular significance. The amended definitions remove this implied test and clarify that the heritage legislation protects all Aboriginal places and objects. The definition removes reference to history and contemporary history and replaces this with a further definition of what is meant by “Aboriginal tradition”.
Government amendment No 5 clarifies the definition of natural heritage significance. Clause 7 of the amendment bill introduces the concepts of natural and cultural heritage significance in the amendment bill. While the Heritage Act has always made provision for both natural and cultural heritage through the heritage significance criteria, it is necessary to further define these concepts for the purposes of other clauses in the bill, such as that which seeks to reduce duplication of natural heritage registrations with other protection mechanisms under the Nature Conservation Act 1980.
The definition for these concepts clarifies that places and objects of natural heritage significance are those which form part of the natural environment and are of heritage significance or scientific value relating to biodiversity, geology, land form or other naturally occurring elements. Further government amendments of this section also clarify that the natural environment means native flora or fauna. These amendments do not alter or change the meaning of those concepts, but simply seek to provide further clarity and certainty, and this will help strengthen the interpretation of the act.
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