Page 3193 - Week 08 - Thursday, 16 August 2018
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(b) For privacy purposes, it is not appropriate to disclose this information, on the individuals who approached.
(6) Under Section 14 of the Act, RAOs may be declared by the Minister once: (a) the Minister invites expressions of interest from entities willing to be declared as RAOs; and (b) entities willing to be declared as RAOs provide an expression of interest.
(7) The Act does not set out requirements for RAOs to maintain their status as RAOs. However, under Section 14 of the Act, the Minister has the power to amend or repeal the declaration of RAOs as required.
While the Act requires RAO consultation, there is no provision in the Act requiring that RAOs be engaged to provide commercial consultancy services; although this commonly occurs in Aboriginal heritage assessment and management projects. In this context, RAO governance and capacity to provide commercial services is not regulated by the Act.
(8) The Act does not require that RAOs consult with other entities prior to providing advice on Aboriginal heritage matters; and accordingly, this is not regulated by the ACT Government or the Council. On this basis, no answers are provided to questions (a), (b), (c) and (d).
However, there are a range of ways that Aboriginal entities who are not RAOs can also provide advice on Aboriginal heritage matters. For example:
• The Council consults with the United Ngunnawal Elders Council (UNEC) – and therefore representatives of each Ngunnawal family group – on a number of its decisions, including registration decisions, heritage guidelines, and repositories for Aboriginal objects;
• The Council also consults with the ACT’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elected Body (ATSIEB) on the above decisions;
• When considering the provisional registration of Aboriginal places and objects, the Council has a four week public consultation period in which any person or group may provide comment;
• When considering Territory Plan Variations, the ACT Government has a minimum six week public consultation period in which any person or group may provide comment, relating to (for example) zone changes that would allow for new suburbs to be built;
• When considering Environmental Impact Assessment for major development and infrastructure projects, the ACT Government has a minimum 20 day consultation period for draft Environmental Impact Statements (EIS), and a minimum 15 day consultation period for EIS Exemptions, in which any person or group may provide comment; and
• When considering Development Applications, the statutory public notification timeframes vary between two and four weeks, depending on the type of application, for all merit track and impact track applications. The bulk of applications, in the merit track, are notified for a period of three weeks.
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