Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It was never granted. Yes, absolutely. The pressure came on in October last year and in response to that the Prime Minister announced an inquiry into the resources of the Australian War Memorial. What the Prime Minister knew, and what others knew, was that they had already been told what the situation was. In fact, the incoming minister was provided with a departmental brief which said the memorial was facing potentially crippling financial circumstances. Why did it take from October until now to make the announcement? I will tell you what forced them to make the announcement this morning, hurriedly—and I would love to know from Senator Lundy what time she got the phone call to be at the War Memorial; I suspect it was not long before the announcement was made. What happened was that there was incredible community pressure growing to the diabolical and appalling behaviour shown to, in my view, the pre-eminent iconic memorial in this country. The pressure became too much and the government was forced to respond. I thank the community for its assistance in the campaign that has been run by the coalition—by Mr Abbott himself and I as the shadow minister for veterans’ affairs. The community has worked very hard on this. The media has made a significant contribution.

But why did it get to this, when this organisation was pleading for $5 million a year extra 12 months ago? When you look at what has been expended and wasted by this government in the last 12 months, the community is asking: what are the Labor Party’s priorities? We heard only two weeks ago that $13 million was wasted on advertising a health agreement for which there was no agreement. That represents nearly three years of the additional funding that the Australian War Memorial required. There is a litany of waste and financial mismanagement which could have put money into this institution and, indeed, other institutions throughout the country. The sooner this government wakes up to itself and reorders its priorities the greater will be the respect that it is given by the Australian community. Look at the last two days in relation to the decision on a carbon tax and look at the impact that that is going to have on Australian families—the very people, the nearly 900,000 ordinary Australians, who visit the Australian War Memorial every year and the nearly 200,000 children.

The financial situation of the War Memorial became so grave that the council met and discussed whether they would close the doors for one day a week. They were going to close the doors for one day a week because the Australian Labor Party refused to provide $5 million. They wasted a billion dollars on the Home Insulation Program, the pink batts program—a billion dollars wasted to pick up on the mistakes they had made—let alone the school halls program and the Green Loans program. When you go through it, there is litany after litany of government waste and financial mismanagement. I hope the Australian Labor Party, and the Prime Minister particularly, has learnt the lesson of the Australian War Memorial. If you treat such icons with the contempt that the Australian Labor Party have done, then you will be pilloried and judged adversely by the Australian community, as you should and they indeed have.

I will finish as I started. I welcome the funding announced by the Prime Minister today, which of course was a response to the funding announced by Mr Abbott last week. Is it coincidental? Others will make their own judgment about that. What the government has to do now is commit the $25 million to the refurbishment of the World War I galleries and not $1.7 million apparently for a feasibility study. We know it is feasible. We know it must be done.