AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL OF NATIONAL TRUSTS Submission responding to the Draft Report of the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Conservation of Australia’s Historic Heritage Places February 2006 © Australian Council of National Trusts 2006 Australian Council of National Trusts PO Box 1002 Civic Square ACT 2608 www.nationaltrust.org.au Australian Council of National Trusts Contents PART A OVERVIEW OF THE ACNT RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT REPORT.................................................................................................. 1 1 Introduction to the Submission................................................................ 3 1.1 Making Inquiry data available ...................................................... 4 2 Summary of the ACNT response to the draft report ............................ 5 2.1 Draft report findings....................................................................... 5 2.2 Draft report recommendations...................................................... 6 2.3 The role of the National Trusts...................................................... 6 2.4 Voluntary listing and conservation agreements ......................... 7 2.5 Consequences of implementation of the Key Recommendation............................................................................. 8 2.6 Consequences of implementation on the National Heritage System............................................................................... 8 2.7 Summary of the ACNT overview of the draft report............... 10 3 ACNT comments on the approach and methodology adopted by the Commission to this Inquiry ........................................................ 12 3.1 Inquiry terms of reference............................................................ 12 3.2 Focus on built heritage ................................................................. 13 3.3 Inadequate research base ............................................................. 14 3.4 Incomplete financial and other data........................................... 15 3.5 Report recommendations and findings...................................... 16 PART B NATIONAL TRUST PROPOSALS................................................. 19 4 Best practice heritage principles............................................................. 21 5 National Trust findings and recommendations .................................. 23 5.1 Findings and recommendations.................................................. 24 PART C ANALYSIS OF ISSUES ADDRESSED IN THE DRAFT REPORT................................................................................................ 31 6 Assessing the value of heritage and addressing market failure in the provision of heritage services......................................... 35 6.1 Assessing net community benefit ............................................... 36 6.2 Assessing heritage value .............................................................. 38 6.3 Other policy instruments ............................................................. 39 Submission responding to the Draft Report of the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Conservation iii of Australia’s Historic Heritage Places Australian Council of National Trusts 7 The national heritage policy framework .............................................. 42 7.1 The National Heritage System..................................................... 42 7.2 The subsidiarity principle ............................................................ 45 7.3 National Heritage Policy .............................................................. 46 7.4 Commonwealth leadership.......................................................... 46 7.5 National heritage data collection and dissemination............... 47 7.6 The Register of the National Estate............................................. 48 8 De-coupling National Trusts from their statutory base..................... 53 8.1 PC Recommendation 7.3 Repeal of legislation establishing National Trusts ........................................................ 54 9 Property rights—balancing the public and the private interest ......................................................................................................... 57 9.1 Development rights....................................................................... 59 10 Costing and funding conservation......................................................... 62 10.1 Capturing the heritage factor....................................................... 62 10.2 Balancing the regulatory stick with the incentive carrot ......... 63 11 Heritage listing—is it the principle or the practice which is the problem?............................................................................................... 66 11.1 How much heritage is too much heritage?................................ 66 11.2 Assessment of significance........................................................... 68 11.3 Heritage lists .................................................................................. 70 11.4 Hierarchical lists ............................................................................ 71 12 Heritage at the local level—is it a problem of regulation or administration? .......................................................................................... 75 12.1 Provision of heritage information............................................... 76 12.2 Statement of significance.............................................................. 77 12.3 Demolition by neglect................................................................... 77 12.4 Rural Heritage Places.................................................................... 78 12.5 Heritage and planning.................................................................. 79 12.6 Heritage precincts.......................................................................... 80 12.7 Heritage and environmental values ........................................... 81 12.8 Conclusion...................................................................................... 81 13 Why voluntary listing based on agreed conservation agreements will not provide a solution................................................. 84 13.1 Conservation agreements are an untried tool in the historic environment..................................................................... 85 13.2 Voluntary listing Undermines the integrity of heritage principles and practice.................................................................. 87 13.3 A ‘one size fits all’ solution .......................................................... 88 13.4 Lack of international research ..................................................... 89 iv Submission responding to the Draft Report of the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Conservation of Australia’s Historic Heritage Places Australian Council of National Trusts 13.5 The problem of the monopoly owner......................................... 90 13.6 Excessive transaction and compliance costs.............................. 91 13.7 National Heritage List .................................................................. 94 13.8 What about inter-generational equity?....................................... 95 13.9 Conclusion...................................................................................... 96 PART D ATTACHMENTS, GLOSSARY AND BIBLIOGRAPHY............ 97 Attachment 1 National Cultural Heritage Forum: the future role for the Register of the National Estate.............................................. 99 Attachment 2 Rural Heritage Places Issues.......................................................... 103 Attachment 3 New Zealand’s Heritage Protection System............................ 147 Attachment 4 Errors identified in the draft report .......................................... 151 Bibliography.......................................................................................................... 152 Submission responding to the Draft Report of the Productivity Commission Inquiry into the Conservation v of Australia’s Historic Heritage Places PART A OVERVIEW OF THE ACNT RESPONSE TO THE DRAFT REPORT The preservation movement has one great curiosity. There is never retrospective controversy or regret. Preservationists are the only people in the world who are invariably confirmed in their wisdom after the fact. John Kenneth Galbraith1 1 Quoted in Rypkema, D.D. (2005), The Economics of Historic Preservation: a community leader’s guide, 2nd edition, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Washington p. 10. Australian Council of National Trusts 1 Introduction to the Submission This is the submission of the Australian Council of National Trusts responding on behalf of the National Trust Movement to the draft report of the Inquiry into the Conservation of Australia’s Historic Heritage Places. This submission should be read in conjunction with the original ACNT submission into the Inquiry (submission 40), and its associated recommendations. It will be supported by the ACNT presentation at the hearings and tour of North Adelaide heritage conservation areas in Adelaide on 10 February, and by separate representations by some of the S/T Trusts. The purpose of this submission is to present the views of the National Trust Movement on the Commission’s analysis of the issues and problems associated with the current system, to outline our agreements and disagreements with the findings and recommendations in the draft report, and to make our own suggestions as to the