Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence Materiel) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

The annual report of the Australian War Memorial provides a very concerning picture about the activities and capacity of the Australian War Memorial to reflect appropriately on Australia’s experience in war. The report reveals that there are pending staffing cuts of more than 20 staff at the Australian War Memorial in the next year or so, on top of 17 staff already cut recently from the memorial. This comes on top of decisions to axe highly successful open days and a much beloved annual event where Christmas carols were conducted at the Australian War Memorial. It has also been revealed that the council of the Australian War Memorial considered cutting one day a week out of the memorial’s program in order to save money. This is one of Australia’s premier national institutions. It is more than simply a tourist attraction, important though it is in that regard in the ACT; it is also an important national memorial and a place where Australians can appropriately reflect on this nation’s experience of war. The idea that its programs and its capacity to deliver that important reflection on Australia’s role to the Australian nation should be reduced is absolutely disgraceful.

Since this government came to office in 2007, some $7 million has been ripped from the budget of the Australian War Memorial. That is an absolute disgrace. This is an institution of great importance to this community and to the Australian community. To see it denuded of its capacity to do the important things that it does, particularly as we approach the centenaries of a number of major milestones of the first part of the 20th century, is very concerning indeed. Of course, 2014 will mark the centenary of the beginning of the First World War and 2015 will mark the centenary of the landing at Gallipoli. I wonder how well this great national institution, the Australian War Memorial, will be able to properly mark that occasion, bring its importance to the attention of all Australians and conduct appropriate commemorations of these centenaries, when its funding has been so dramatically cut by this Labor government. Frankly, I do not believe it will be possible to properly mark those occasions in the present circumstances.

I condemn this government for its decisions with respect to the Australian War Memorial. I expect it to reconsider; I expect it to acknowledge that the memorial cannot do its important job with these sorts of serious cuts going on. I note that the government has pledged to include national institutions in the efficiency dividend that is applied—a dividend it attacked when it was in opposition but has applied in government; indeed, it has increased it at various points in government. I implore it to reconsider this policy. This institution, and indeed others in the national capital, play a role which is far too important to be compromised by the penny-pinching of this government.