Western Victoria Region
Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:50): (515) My question is for the Minister for Treaty and First Peoples, and it concerns an information demand sent to my constituent by an authorised officer in the Department of Premier and Cabinet under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006. It is another attack on Victoria’s climbing community. I have two issues with the letter. Firstly, it is straightforward intimidation. The letter requests information but then immediately follows up with a threat of the maximum penalties applicable for those breaking the law itself. This conflation clearly and wrongly implies that those penalties attach to refusing to supply the information requested. Secondly, the authorised officer, without any warning about self-incrimination or reference to penalties for failing to provide information, demands car ownership details from the recipient. My question is: Minister, do you support this conflation and intimidation, and which specific section of the act justifies this information demand in the absence of entry to the recipient’s land or premises?