Canberrans who have damaged Aboriginal cultural sites or heritage homes will be ordered to make repairs, under new laws passed by the ACT government.
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The new laws will allow for the ACT Heritage Council to issue the repair orders to anyone found to have damaged significant heritage sites in the capital.
Changes to the legislation, passed by the ACT government on Tuesday, have also lowered the threshold for the amount of damage done to a heritage site to include minor or moderate damage.
Previously, fines could only be issued for "serious" offences. The new laws come after two heritage-listed Aboriginal scarred trees were cut down in Wanniassa in 2017.
One of the trees were accidentally cut down by an ACT government contractor, before the incident was self-reported.
Ngunnawal elders said the loss of the scarred trees represented the destruction of 25,000 years of Indigenous history.
Infringement officers will also be able to hand out on-the-spot fines of up to $1000 for individuals and $5000 for corporations, regardless if sites can be repaired.
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Offenders were previously only able to be prosecuted through the courts.
ACT Environment Minister Mick Gentleman said sacred areas across Canberra were better protected under the new laws.
"Once heritage places are lost, they, and all they represent, are permanently lost to future generations," Mr Gentleman said.
"In the past, people have got away with minor damage because we've only had the big stick of prosecution, which is a costly, drawn-out and inflexible way to deal with small issues.
"Limitations in the legislation have meant the Heritage Council has not been able to insist on repairs."
Previous laws only allowed the Heritage Council to make demands for people who destroy sites to repair them only if the heritage object faced an imminent threat.
ACT Greens planning spokeswoman Caroline Le Couteur welcomed the changes to the legislation.
"I was saddened to hear about the felling of two scarred trees last year in Wanniassa," she said.
"The incidents revealed weaknesses in the ACT laws that needed to be fixed. [The law changes] will help ensure situations like this are less likely to happen again."
ACT Heritage Council chair David Flannery said the council had been calling for the law changes for several years.
He said lowering the threshold for what damage would be able to be prosecuted meant sites would be better protected.
"It's clear the Canberra community is very passionate about our heritage which we all share," he said.
"It will deter people from damaging these sites in the first place and if that damage is done, they'll be made responsible for it.
"There have been some recent events in the last few years and there had been issues with minor works [to heritage sites] being undertaken that we hadn't been able to sanction."