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

by leave—I rise today to take note of the ministerial statement given in the other place yesterday by the Minister for Veterans Affairs and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on the Centenary of Anzac, Warren Snowdon. I also note that my colleague in the other place Stuart Robert, the shadow minister for defence, science, technology and personnel, provided a detailed response on the coalition's behalf. In my capacity as shadow minister assisting the Leader of the Opposition on the centenary of Anzac I rise today to take note of the minister's statement and remind the Senate of the government's ongoing failure to establish a budget and funding program to sit alongside the centenary commemoration period.

In February this year the Prime Minister and Minister Snowdon received a blueprint to deliver a centenary of Anzac commemorative program. This blueprint was prepared by the National Commission on the Commemoration of the Anzac Centenary. The commission comprised former prime ministers Bob Hawke and the Malcolm Fraser, the president of the RSL, Rear Admiral Ken Doolan, cartoonist Warren Brown, recently retired Major Matina Jewell and war widow Kylie Russell. The commission received more than 1,000 ideas for consideration from more than 600 individual submissions. The commission recommended the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board be established and now, some eight months later, the government has finally seen fit to establish a board and appoint its members. The appointment in July of former CDF Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston AC, AFC, retired, as the inaugural chair was warmly welcomed by the coalition, but for more than three months ACM Houston was hamstrung by ongoing delays in appointing the rest of the board. Both the board and the centenary of Anzac commemorations have full bipartisan support.

I note that the board that the minister has announced comprises four ex officio officeholders, including the Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Vice Chief of the Defence Force, the President of the RSL of Australia and the High Commissioner of New Zealand. I am very pleased to see the involvement of the High Commissioner in what are the most significant commemorations for our two countries. Five of the 20 board members have experience in the Australian Defence Force and/or represent ex-service organisations. However, I restate the coalition's concern that the Australian War Memorial—forgotten by the Gillard-Brown Labor government early this year when its funding was slashed, before pressure from the community and the coalition restored it—has been forgotten again and left out in an official capacity on the board. This is regrettable, and the government should have ensured that the Australian War Memorial—the home, as it is, of Australia's national commemoration, remembrance and reflection—was afforded its due place on the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board.

I now wish to draw the Senate's attention to the plight of projects across Australia which are now solely reliant on the minister finally determining a budget for the centenary of Anzac, now just three short years away. The first project to come to my attention was the Anzac Interpretive Centre in Albany, Western Australia. I want to place on record the magnificent support for this project from Senator Judith Adams, the patron senator for the great southern part of the state, and the work of the Liberal candidate for O'Connor, Rick Wilson, who supports Albany's pre-eminent position in the centenary of Anzac commemorations.

I have now visited Albany twice; first in November last year and more recently in late July, when I spoke with the veteran business community about preparations for the centenary commemorations. In late July my well publicised visit coincided with the minister making a flying visit to announce $250,000 for a scoping study to determine the final cost to the government for the interpretive centre. To date this money has not made its way to the local community. About 10 days ago there was significant local community pressure and press expressing concern about the delay in payment of the scoping study money. I understand that as a result of that it may well be that the Western Australian RSL have received documentation, which they have returned. It should not have taken local community pressure to ensure the delivery of the funding agreement.

The Anzac Interpretive Centre is the first of many projects planned for the Centenary of Anzac. A failure to get this right could jeopardise the entire period of commemoration and mire it in controversy similar to other government programs like the pink batts and the school halls programs. After all, this government's past behaviour and poor practices are the best guide to what its future performance could be like.

Close to my own heart is the nationally recognised Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne. It requires many millions of dollars for refurbishment and safety upgrades ahead of the centenary, and I understand requests have been made to the government for funding, albeit with no response. At a local level, veteran and ex-service organisations and community groups are thinking about ways to commemorate local service and sacrifice but are flying blind in the face of no guidance or direction from the government. Without any funding certainty community organisations are between a rock and a hard place when deciding how to best conduct local commemorations. After all, it was the extraordinary deeds of ordinary men and women from every corner of this nation, from the big cities and, more importantly, the small towns, which determined the course of the war and defined the Anzac legacy that we commemorate today.

These decisions must be taken now. I hope the size of the Anzac Centenary Advisory Board does not slow down the pace of decision making. Setting a strategic direction will be pivotal to the success of their mission. I congratulate them on their appointment to what is a significant board of Australians. They are charged with enormous responsibility. The commemoration of the centenary of the Anzac landing will be the most defining moment in our nation's history and for the first generation of the 21st century. If we get this right we can ensure that the commemoration of these significant moments in our nation's history will never be forgotten. Our legacy must be in the hearts and minds of future generations of Australians. They will remember, reflect and commemorate the service and sacrifice of those who defend our values in times of war and peace, ensuring that they—and we—vow never to forget. It is not my role to direct the board as to what recommendations they should make, but they could do a lot worse than repeat the actions and the programs put in place by the former ALP Minister for Veterans' Affairs Con Sciacca. Many of us were here during the Australia Remembers program. I most certainly was. I was the member for Ballarat in the other place. Minister Sciacca left a great legacy to this country. I have publicly congratulated and thanked him before, and I do so again today. Minister Sciacca drove what I thought was a magnificent locally based commemorative program, where right across this country, from the smallest towns up, there was the opportunity to participate in the Australia Remembers program. I hope that this will be repeated.

I have offered the current minister my full and bipartisan support to make this centenary of Anzac work. It can have no less than bipartisan support, but with that of course comes the responsibility to ensure that the opposition is actively engaged in decision making and that we are consulted in relation to what programs the government intends to put in place. I have great confidence that Angus Houston will lead this board with great dignity and with very substantial outcomes. His appointment came with the strong blessing of the opposition. The board is tasked with a massive responsibility, and I am confident that they will do it the justice it deserves.

Question agreed to.