What national laws apply?
The federal government has a receding role in the protection of places in Australia that have heritage values (other than world heritage) – the intent being that state and local government should deal with most heritage issues. Formerly, many thousands of places evaluated as having national heritage values were listed on the Register of the National Estate and were afforded some direct and indirect protection at a national level. However, this listing is now frozen (places no longer added or removed) and is simply a database. If a site on this list is harmed, or likely to be harmed, there is no longer any immediate trigger for federal laws to intervene. However, there are two heritage lists that are relevant at a national level.
