Sam Newman at it again!

[DJC]

It's even worse on the bureaucracy side of things, in some areas you get land site survey fees as part of planning permits but built into this is you guessed it, a tick off from local indigenous communities before you can even dig a hole, more $ for that in the fee than the surveyors.

Another case, a family farm has been growing trees for lumber for nearly 100 years. They want to clear some of the trees to restore pastures, now they have to get a permit to clear trees their own family planted and we're initially denied on indigenous heritage grounds. But hold a ceremony to clear the land for use it'll be OK, $11,000 is the fee they paid, the ceremony involved burning fallen timber and removing what was described as a handful of dirt. The ashes of fallen timber from their own trees, it's like a joke story you hear in a Scottish pub about how locals con tourists!

If shizen like this is really going on, then it's obligatory for it to be exposed by both sides of the debate, otherwise one side is going to risk being labelled disingenuous!

Wrong LP.  I administered Victoria's Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 from its commencement in 2007 until I retired at the end of 2012.  That's not how it works.

High impact activities in areas of cultural heritage sensitivity (defined by demonstrated correlation of landforms and the presence of Aboriginal cultural heritage - occupations sites, stone artefacts, burials, rock art, etc) may require the preparation of a cultural heritage management plan.  If so, the plan must be completed and approved before a statutory authority, such as a planning permit, can be granted.  Cultural heritage management plans must be prepared by qualified heritage advisors, 99% of whom are non-Indigenous archaeologists.  Representatives of the relevant Aboriginal group(s) may be employed to assist with the preparation of the plan but the lion's share of cost of the plan goes to the archaeologist.

Where a traditional owner body has been appointed as the Registered Aboriginal Party or RAP (that's about 75% of the State), the RAP may elect to evaluate the plan.  Fees for evaluating plans are set by regulation and there is an appeal process if the RAP declines to approve the plan.  In my time, only around 50% of the State had RAPs and evaluation of management plans was done by my department.  Part of my role was signing off on whether cultural heritage management plans could be approved in accordance with criteria specified by regulation.  Many plans could not be approved on first submission.  In other words, inadequate work by some heritage advisors resulted in project delays and additional costs.

The objectives of the management plan process are to avoid harming Aboriginal cultural heritage where possible.  If that's not possible, harm should be minimised or mitigated.  Once the plan is approved, the development can proceed in accordance with the requirements of the plan.

One of the developers I had to deal with over a plan that could not be approved was Fraser Brown.  He saw the nub of the problem immediately and, after berating his heritage advisor for wasting his time, instructed her to re-write the plan exactly as DJC (and the regulations) required.

The legislation that underpins this process is acknowledged as world's best practice.