Re: Sam Newman at it again!
Reply #84 –
There is a world of difference between what happens with corporations, foreign investors and mum and dad owners.
The things you talk about are undoubtedly correct, but that is not how the system is gamed at the domestic / residential level. There is the act you talk about, the environment acts, the anti-discrimination laws, the wildlife regulations. They are all gamed to leverage advantage over anyone who isn't wealthy enough to either ignore or fight it.
The problem the people I know have is that they are just citizens, owner developers, residents, they want to live and participate in the region. But those wanting reparations are indifferent to them, they oppose them for a price, get preferential treatment from tribunals or committees based almost purely on spoken testimony / opinion, which can only be countered with expensive technical surveys, legal procedures and lengthy scientific, academic or engineering investigations. Corporations can just ignore the bullcrap, push ahead and pay the fine, they just treat it as a cost of doing business, but mum and dad operators can't and the activists know it. If you challenge them, you end up with a cabal of indigenous, green and animal rights activists making your life hell, and often it is the same faces in the opposition popping up oddly all over the state. The system is gamed and the average person is powerless to do anything about it because the laws are asymmetrical in implementation.
I’m sorry LP but it’s not world’s best practice for nothing.
If you’re intending to carry out a high impact activity in an area of cultural heritage sensitivity, you can’t get a statutory authority unless you have an approved cultural heritage management plan. There are no exemptions or exceptions and no-one - minister, head of dept, traditional owner - can override that.
You don’t need a management plan if you’re continuing the existing land use, agroforestry for example. However, if your activity will harm Aboriginal cultural heritage, you will require a cultural heritage permit. Again, the process and fees are prescribed by regulation.
In my experience, everyone from large corporations and govt departments to folk subdividing the family property got the go ahead with little fuss and not much cost.