Not content with trying to remove the concept of ‘wilderness’ from Tasmania’s World Heritage Area, now Heritage Minister, Matthew Groom, is removing a reported 445 properties from Tasmania’s Heritage Register in a secret process, Greens’ Heritage spokesperson, Cassy O’Connor MP, said today.
“Mr Groom’s plan to remove one third of the properties from the Heritage Register was exposed by the Greens before Budget Estimates last year. Despite repeated questioning and a Right to Information request, Tasmanians still don’t know what this Minister’s plan for Tasmania’s unique European cultural heritage is.”
“My RTI request came back with mostly blacked out pages and no information on how the process of removing heritage-listed properties would take place and nothing on the criteria for shrinking the Heritage Register. It is all being done by stealth.”
“It is hard to understand how a spokesperson for Mr Groom can claim the 445 properties proposed to be removed from the Register do not “meet any criteria warranting registration” when presumably, it was their historic cultural heritage value that saw them being put on the Register in the first place.”
“Mr Groom needs to be less secretive about his plans for Tasmania’s shared European cultural heritage.
“Tasmanians are entitled to know what process has been used to determine removals from the Register, what criteria are being applied, whether a wider group of heritage bodies and experts are being consulted, and what properties are proposed to lose their heritage protection.”
“With his attempted assault on Tasmania’s natural and cultural heritage, Minister Groom is fast gaining a reputation as a politician who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing,” Ms O’Connor said.
Cassy O’Connor MP | Greens Heritage spokesperson
