Parks director should be accountable for ‘offence’ to Kakadu sacred site, protection authority says

Parks Australia, which jointly manages Kakadu national park with traditional owners, agreed they worked on a sacred site at Gunlom Falls without the necessary permissions. Photograph: Lightly Salted/Alamy

A fight to hold Parks Australia to account over a walking track built through a sacred site in the Kakadu national park could be heading to the high court after a lower court found a Northern Territory law did not apply to the federal organisation.

The Aboriginal Areas Protection Authority (AAPA) has sought leave to appeal against a decision by the NT supreme court in September which found the director of Parks Australia was exempt from prosecution under the NT Aboriginal Sacred Sites Act.