Cultural material is an important part of a nation’s identity. It includes artworks and historical, archaeological, numismatic, philatelic, science or technology objects. The Australian Government has recently legislated to protect Australian and foreign cultural property.

Australia’s Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act 1986 is supported by legislation which was updated in December 2018. The Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Regulations 2018 were revised to implement some of the recommendations and principles of the Review of the Protection of Movable Cultural Heritage Act by Shane Simpson AM. The Explanatory Statement contains information on the changes to the previous regulations from 1987.

The new Regulations can be found online  along with the Explanatory Statement which outlines the full details of all changes.