Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a)

notes the:

(i)

value and importance to the cultural landscape of Australia of its estimated 15 000 architectural heritage buildings, almost a third of which are in Tasmania,

(ii)

dismantling of the independent Australian Heritage Commission, the relegation of the Register of the National Estate to state oversight and the subsequent downgrading of heritage issues at the federal level,

(iii)

need for urgent repairs to some of Australia’s most significant heritage buildings, and

(iv)

threat to one specific example, being the Holy Trinity Church in Hobart, designed by convict architect James Blackburn, which faces closure and an uncertain future because the Anglican Church cannot afford the cost of sandstone renovation work; and

(b)

calls on the Government to allocate monies in the form of a National Cultural Heritage Fund, along the same lines as the Higher Education Endowment Fund, to ensure that Australia’s culturally significant heritage buildings are adequately maintained into the future.

Question put.