John Hawkins
I AM lucky to own a Heritage listed landscape in Tasmania, the only other listed landscape is that surrounding Government House and the adjoining Botanical Gardens in Hobart. This listing does nothing to protect the landscape surrounding Government House or the forest landscape of the Chudleigh Valley and the question I pose is why?
Sue Neales notes that the Legislative Council Select Committee report concluded that “Heads of Government Departments….should be, apolitical, measured, truthful, ethical and impartial”: Flawed Public Service
Scott Gadd is the Secretary of the Department of the Environment Parks and Arts. He was placed in this position by the pro logging Labor Government in 2004.
The extraordinary exemption of Forestry from all Heritage Legislation and the complete lack of Cultural Landscape legislation is set in stone.
The consultants Godden and Mackay reviewing the Heritage Act in 2005 stated unequivocally that this exemption should be removed.
Gadd and his department have contested all FOI requests to discover who has blocked the Godden recommendation and the matter is now before the Ombudsman.
In 1999 Tasmania was beginning to move forward in the matter of Cultural Landscape legislation.
This stopped abruptly with the appointment of Gadd in 2004.
The background of the supposedly independent Heritage Council has been altered under Gadd’s stewardship.
Now, only one member of the Council has expertise in heritage. The other members are political appointments.
Two of the most senior Public Servants in Gadd’s department, men of honour and integrity, with the interests of the public at heart, have resigned.
I have submitted, in camera, a position paper on the matter of the exemption of Forestry from all Heritage Legislation and the reasons behind this unique exemption to the Joint Select Committee on Ethical Conduct and I await their Report.
