Top Aboriginal body is slammed over push to bring in ‘cultural police’ to inspect houses and farms in Victoria

A plan to allow Indigenous cultural researchers to enter private properties in Victoria without the owner’s or tenant’s permission has been rejected.

The Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council warned that its staff investigating alleged cultural heritage violations needed more power to do their jobs.

The council, which is under the wing of Victoria’s Department of Premier and Cabinet, used an example of an Indigenous person’s remains possibly being in a shed but not retrieved because permission from the occupying forces was needed to enter .

The move outraged Sky News presenter James Morrow, who called it the “culture police”, “Orwellian”, “statism” and “anti-freedom”.

His co-hosts Rita Panahi and Rowan Dean angrily agreed with him and took the opportunity to lash out at any form of progressive politics in Australia, including Indigenous Affairs Minister Linda Burney.

The council, which is under the wing of Victoria’s Department of Premier and Cabinet, used an example of an Indigenous person’s remains possibly being in a shed but not retrieved because the occupier’s approval was needed to enter. (photo, Grampians National Park among several locations in Victoria protected by cultural heritage laws)

“These cultural police would have the right to invade people’s private properties, such as farms and homes in Victoria, without the owner’s consent to check for violations of Indigenous cultural sites, heritage or land,” said Morrow.

The US-raised broadcaster told his co-hosts that the ‘culture police’ were just the latest attack on mainstream Aussies.

‘People always look at these things in isolation, Covid, the Vote… it’s all this thread of statism and it’s this thread of control and it’s a thread of anti-freedom and a thread of really cracking down on ordinary Australians who I just want their living their lives and telling them how to live,” he said.

Rita Panahi, who was born in the US and then grew up in Iran before coming to Australia with her family as a refugee, also saw the Victorian move as part of a wider agenda.

“This is the left-wing march and it’s always the same people, whether it’s about global warming, whether it’s about race issues – BLM (Black Lives Matter) marches or Invasion Day, whether you have people taking to the streets stands for the Palestinian cause – in almost all cases they are the same people.

“And it’s the same group of people who are pushing this anti-Western agenda, this push to say we’re not legitimate, this is an evil country.”

Panahi said she feared the proposal because of her own experiences in Iran.

‘When you say something like ‘culture police’, I get chills. I come from a country where there is a moral police that checks whether women wear their headscarves correctly.

“And if they don’t, they are beaten up and taken to prison, and sometimes they are killed. When you talk about something like this, alarm bells start ringing and they should ring for everyone.’

The show’s third host, Rowan Dean, joked that he hoped the culture police would “follow the Archibald (art prize) and a few modern art centers and basically remove everything that has been done or painted since the 1970s.”

“But this is really sinister stuff, of course it comes from the Victorian Labor culture police, wandering around checking to see if you’ve done something wrong with Aboriginal culture in some way.”

A plan to allow Indigenous cultural researchers to enter private properties in Victoria without permission from the owner or tenant has been rejected by Sky News presenters including Rita Panahi (pictured)

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council for comment.

The revelations come after it emerged that a mountain climber had been threatened with a fine of more than $300,000 for allegedly breaching cultural heritage laws.

The visitor was left stunned after receiving a letter following their visit to Grampians National Park in Victoria on October 18.

Victoria’s First Peoples-State Relations unit is reportedly monitoring climbers and other visitors after rock climbing was banned in the area in 2019.

The ban was introduced in an effort to protect indigenous heritage, including petroglyphs that are so worn they can only be viewed through special X-ray glasses.

A mountaineer’s home was visited twice by an investigator from the First Peoples Unit, who alleged that a vehicle registered in their name was linked to cultural heritage infringements.

Researcher Adam Green, who works at the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, left a letter at the climber’s property after two visits.