[Lang]

Mike

Having imported and exported a few items of "cultural heritage" to and from Australia I consider the regulations to be very sensibly administered.

If you have a look at the list of applications put out every year by the Department very few are knocked back. Most are only submitted because of the blanket rules on age not particular significance.

It has to be of particular NATIONAL cultural significance. Your time at the Museum no doubt involved you in giving expert advice.

I had a long meeting with the head of the permit section and 3 board members and, for public servants, (to do with an aircraft) I was very surprised by the pragmatic approach.

I remember his words "We live in a global village. This year we imported far more "significant" vehicles from other countries than we exported. Because we are a small but relatively wealthy country the flow of historic items, artwork and other ephemera is quite heavily on the inbound side of the ledger"

"Our task is to protect things of genuine national significance. National "interest" is quite different to national "significance". "Interest" is usually related to time and place and eventually fades. "Significance" is forever a part of our nation. Just because it is old, even if it is a one-off, does not mean it has great significance to the entire nation other than for family members or enthusiasts. We have many attempted blocks on export of artwork by famous Australian painters who may have done several hundred or even thousand, paintings in their lifetime which will be unlikely to succeed."

"We also live in a democracy where if a government (acting for all the people) wants to restrict or seize private property it must fairly compensate the owner. The Act only allows us to prevent the export of nationally significant items, we have no say on the use, sale or even destruction of the property if it stays in Australia. If the government really wants it they must buy it at a fair price.

It does not happen often but where export blocks under the Act have had serious legal appeal, reversal of our decision is more than likely. This sometimes has resulted in the Government buying the item at a high price to prevent its export for cultural and no-doubt political reasons"

Back to the GAZ:

I have no idea of the history of the GAZ but I suspect it was recovered from the side of the road, used by 3RAR and brought back from Korea. Shot Colonels and critical secret papers, not to mention .50 calibre holes from a unit that had no .50 calibre weapons raise eyebrows. Its fate was to be stored, sold and eventually scrapped like thousands of similar items brought back from numerous wars i.e. no national significance.

To be export-blocked it would have to be the very GAZ (not an identical vehicle) Private Fred Flintstone VC shot the Chinese driver, loaded it up with 3 wounded mates and charged under heavy fire through enemy lines to save them.