Page 1161 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 22 August 1989
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never had any hope that there would be large amounts of funding for the museum in the Federal budget. How very sad! She has not taken the same approach as the Chief Minister. She has just argued that she never really thought that there would have been much hope for a museum in any case.
I find it immensely sad that the Museum of Australia has not gone ahead. It is a false saving on the part of the Federal Government to spend a million dollars, as it presently has, on a program to maintain, catalogue and conserve items in the museum's collection, because a large part of that $1m will go towards conserving items which are presently deteriorating because they are not properly displayed in a proper museum. In other words, the Government is spending money in its Federal budget to keep items in a safe condition, in a good condition, which otherwise it would have on display. If it were spending the money to build the museum it probably would not have to spend that money on conservation.
Equally surprising is the decision not to take any steps to ensure that the old Parliament House is properly dealt with. Here is the fine woman herself. She enters the chamber. Again, her smile is intact. She is braving the cold winds. No doubt, she has been facing some horrendous media onslaught about her comments.
Ms Follett: Mr Speaker, could I ask you to make a ruling on the relevance of this matter.
MR SPEAKER: Chief Minister, I am afraid I have just taken the chair. Please proceed with the matter at hand, Mr Humphries.
MR HUMPHRIES: I will be relevant, and I will not comment on the Chief Minister's smile any more than is absolutely relevant and necessary. But I will say, Mr Speaker, that we have a decision, or rather the lack of a decision, in relation to the old Parliament House. There is no commitment of any funds, as far as I am aware, to refurbish that place. It is supposed, in the course of time, to house the National Trust, I think, a government information office, and other things, but not, of course, this Assembly.
It is something of an irony that that is the case, because I have no doubt in my mind that, were this Assembly to be housed in that building now, there would be money spent, from our coffers, on at least refurbishing that part of the building into which we would be moving, and that at least would preserve that part of the building and make it accessible to people of the ACT. At present there is no access by people of the ACT or anybody else to that building. It is deteriorating, as people would be aware. It is of some sadness to me that that should be the case. I am very sorry that the ACT Government, led by its smiling Chief Minister, should have declined to take any steps to ensure that there would be some funds available to refurbish old Parliament House, but che sara, sara.
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