“A large part of Sorry Day is the recognition of the length of time it took to acknowledge the wrongs done to the indigenous people of Australia. I am also sorry that in NSW the destruction of hundreds of Aboriginal cultural sites has been allowed to occur and the NSW Government, influenced by the submission of the NSW Minerals Council, did not even proclaim its own law that would have protected them.”
“I call on the Environment Minister to take Sorry Day as a starting point from which her department begins to truly engage with the indigenous people of this state to redress what has been a scandalous disregard for their culture.”
“Between 2005 and 2008 the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change received 541 applications to destroy or damage Aboriginal objects and places. The Department approved 84% of these applications.”
“The Department has also approved 82 permits to Commonwealth and State Government departments to destroy Aboriginal cultural heritage over the last 2 years. It has never refused a government department a permit to destroy or damage an Aboriginal place or object.”
“It is totally unacceptable that the Department of Environment and Climate Change is still the consent authority when it comes to disturbing or destroying Aboriginal cultural sites. The only role Aboriginal people currently have is consultative; they have no right of consent over whether a site gets a permit for destruction or not.”
“It’s time for the NSW Government to live up to its rhetoric on partnerships with Aboriginal communities. Unless the NSW Government steps out of the dark ages where Aboriginal communities are treated as just another ‘stakeholder’, the word ‘partnership’ in the mouths of the NSW Government amounts to nothing more than spin.”
“Recently the Environment Minister said that by the end of this year she will be introducing fines of up to $1.1 million and a "strict liability" offence to prevent developers and others from damaging Aboriginal artefacts. When permits to destroy sites are being granted at the rate of three a week, significant damage can be done in the interim.”
“Ms Tebbutt talks of bringing in big fines but who is going to police this? Who is going to undertake assessment of the damage? There are already obvious problems under the Act as it exists now as there have been very few prosecutions. “
“Aboriginal people need to play a central role in the assessment of their heritage.”
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