In a Ministerial Statement today, the Heritage Minister said that she has lost confidence in the territory’s heritage council following findings from a review into the work of the heritage council conducted by Nous Group.

The Minister tabled an executive summary of the Nous Group review and said she would begin another review into the territory’s heritage system.

Shadow Minister for Heritage Nicole Lawder moved a motion calling on the government to table the review in its entirety, which was voted down by Labor and the Greens Members.

“It is deeply concerning that a review with such damning findings will not be released publicly. Is this the sort of integrity and transparency that the Greens Member promised when they got elected?” Ms Lawder stated.

“For the Heritage Minister to say that she has lost confidence in the heritage council and is willing to sack all its members is incredibly serious. Providing an Executive Summary of the review is not good enough and doesn’t pass the pub test on transparency.

“What’s unsurprising is the Minister’s idea of action on these damning findings is to conduct another review of heritage arrangements. One is apparently not enough, despite the clear evidence over many years that the council is not working appropriately.

“Residents and stakeholders deserve to know the truth about what is going on within the ACT Heritage Council. People haven’t been receiving advice from the Heritage Council on time for years and they deserve to know why.

“Heritage belongs to Canberrans and the Minister must stop the secrecy and release the review in its entirety,” Ms Lawder concluded.