Archive: Federal Heritage Issues
Last Updated 29/3/10
National Heritage Crisis - An Urgent Call For Assistance
(21/6/08 - P) Dr Geoff Mosley, former Director of the Australian Conservation Foundation, says Australian heritage protection at the Commonwealth level is close to a crisis situation.
Dr. Mosley holds strong concerns that so much of Australia's heritage just isn't being given the protection it warrants. Click here to see what Dr. Mosley has to say on this issue.
Federal Productivity Commission's Heritage Recommendations Are Heartbreakers
(7/8/06 - P) It seems saving Australia's heritage runs second to making money: is it 'snouts in the trough' time as developers look set to be compensated for NOT knocking it down - if the Federal government agrees with Commission's recommendations?
"Conservation of Australia's Heritage Places" is an odd title for the report (No.37, 6 April 2006) produced by the Productivity Commission, because its recommendations seem intent on achieving the opposite outcome. The Commission is sticking with its draft recommendations that the Register of the National Estate be made obsolete (transfer historic heritage places on the Register to a national heritage database, and purge all references to the Register from legislation and regulations). It also wants all legislation governing the operations of the National trust repealed. But the recommendation most likely to quickly kill off Australia's heritage is the one about 'unreasonable costs'. The Commission is proposing that owners of private property affected by or proposed to be affected by heritage protection be able to contest the protection on the basis of it imposing 'unreasonable costs' - this would be facilitated by a legislated ability to appeal to tribunals and courts to either get rid of the protection or be compensated for loss of development opportunities, decreased property values and maintenance costs.
MRRA Says:
Perhaps we should all start buying heritage properties, then go for compensation for not being able to tear it down or alter it as we like. Money for old rope, in MRRA's book. Developers should love it: buy the property, claim compensation for not being able to put a squillion units on it, then sell the property as is. Could be a nice little earner, although we aren't quite sure who does the compensating yet or whether successive owners of the land would be eligible for compensation.
Of course, if the Federal government goes for what the Commission wants, it will spell death for heritage protection - and heritage - in Macedon Ranges. Over six years on from a 1999 Panel recommendation to put heritage overlays on all heritage places in Macedon Ranges, it still hasn't been done. If the Commission gets its way, those overlays would be unlikely to ever be put in place, leaving our heritage to survive as best it can. Some won't, as we saw with the demolition of the Butcher's Shop in New Gisborne a couple of years ago.
We encourage you to contact your Federal politicians and tell them how you feel. Click here for contact details for Federal lower house representatives in Macedon Ranges. Click here for Victorian Federal Senators' email contacts.
MRRA's Productivity Commission Submission
(27/2/06 - P) We don't buy the Commission's recommendations to abolish heritage protection in Australia - we say, abolish the Productivity Commission instead
Click here to see what MRRA said in its submission.
Federal Government’s Productivity Commission Looks To Wipe Out Heritage Protection
(11/2/06 – P) Almost all controls and protections removed, including the National Estate – submissions against this outrage close February 24
In a time when more people are becoming more concerned about sustainability, and preserving things for the next generation, it’s difficult to believe anyone could possibly conjure up an argument that protecting our heritage – in essence, our cultural identity – is holding back productivity. But that’s what the Federal government’s Productivity Commission is saying: get rid of the Register of the National Estate, abolish planning controls, strip the National Trust of authority – these are some of the ‘loopy’ recommendations coming from the Commission. In fact just about the only form of protection it supports is agreements between individual landowners and governments. Otherwise, too bad. Why? In a stupendous example of ‘knowing the cost of everything and the value of nothing’, , it seems heritage protection just gets in the way of demolition and development, and darn it, it costs too much (although the Commission admits it isn’t completely across costs either). The Commission, which at the time of producing its draft findings and recommendations had received a meagre 20 submissions from across the nation, will conduct hearings in Melbourne next week. Submissions can be made until February 24.
For more information and a copy of the Commission’s (very large) draft report, go to its website at http://www.pc.gov.au or call on 1800 020 083 (freecall) or 9653 2100, or fax on 9653 2199. The Commission’s Victorian address is: Level 28, 35 Collins Street, Melbourne, 3000.
MRRA Says:
We already know what we are going to say in our submission about this, sub-third-world attitude. We’d like to know why the Commission has turned its attention to heritage in the first place, and we would be hoping there isn’t a political party silly enough to think these outrageously single-minded, economic rationalist recommendations are a good idea.