Page 3966 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 9 November 1994
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That is a very powerful editorial comment from that particular paper. Let us go back to what the Federal Labor Government promised in March 1993.
Mr Wood: What about the Federal Liberals? What are they saying about this?
MR STEFANIAK: I will come to that, Mr Wood. The Federal Liberals have been relatively consistent on this and are now going to make a big issue out of it. It is your mob who have stuffed this up. I quote now from the ALP cultural policy of 1993. The first two paragraphs on a National Museum of Australia state:
Labor believes that the Commonwealth has a major role to play in preserving and making accessible our experience as a nation, and that all Australians should have the opportunity to share in this inheritance.
For that reason, Labor will proceed with the development of the National Museum of Australia, with a Commonwealth contribution of $26 million over four years. Its completion will be a co-operative exercise between the Commonwealth, the Government of the Australian Capital Territory and the corporate sector.
The document goes on to say finally:
Concurrently, over the next four years, there will be a staged development of the Museum's site at Yarramundi including exhibition, education and conservation facilities.
I move along to 3 December 1993. The local ALP branch council unanimously rejected moves to build a $50m National Museum of Australia on Acton Peninsula. That council called on the Federal Government to press ahead with the construction of the museum at Yarramundi Reach. Doug Thompson, the branch secretary, probably a very sensible man, said that there were two problems with the Acton site - firstly, there was a lack of space and, secondly, the council supported the establishment of a hospice on Acton. Maybe it would be better at Calvary, but that is what he said. The Arts Minister, Bob McMullan, indicated that a decision was likely in mid-1994.
That is where things started to go wrong. After all the great hoo-ha and trumpeting by the Prime Minister in March 1993, in April 1994 we got an inkling that things were going a little bit amiss. Robert Macklin from the Canberra Times wrote that he was startled to see on a local television station the Federal Minister for the Arts, Michael Lee, telling a reporter that the location and funding of the National Museum of Australia were to be reviewed. Decisions on the museum's future would not be announced, he said, for about six months. The Prime Minister and the ALP Federal Government had started going back on their promises made in the Federal election in March of 1993.
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