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

This is a motion to approve the erection of two statues in the Parliamentary Zone, one to former Prime Minister John Curtin and the other to former Prime Minister Ben Chifley. The opposition does not oppose this motion and believes it is appropriate to honour Australian Prime Ministers in the national capital. Works of this kind are appropriate in that sense. I do not particularly wish to question the judgement of the ACT government as a senator in funding this work—it is not a federal government funded work but an ACT government funded work—although as a taxpayer in the ACT I do have some misgivings about the priorities of the ACT government when we have the longest waiting times in the country in our hospitals and we cannot provide affordable housing to our citizens, but that is a debate for another place and another time. My concern with this motion and this process is that it seems to sideline the role of the federal government and the federal parliament in determining systematically how Australia’s prime ministers will be commemorated within the Parliament Zone. This is a process that sees which prime ministers will be commemorated and how and when determined not by the federal government or by the National Capital Authority, for example, but by who comes through the government’s door with a proposal to erect a statue or other commemoration.