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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 5 Hansard (8 May) . . Page.. 1378 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

Oddly enough, the motion grew out of a dinner and a lunch. Mr Quinlan attended the dinner. The lunch was the Trends lunch on Friday that St George put on, where we talked of tourism. Brian Kennedy, the director of the National Gallery of Australia, spoke at both meetings. He spoke with a certain sense of sadness, but also with a sense of fun and challenge. The initial speech was called "Who gives a rat's about the arts?"

The speech last Friday was in a similar vein. Brian lamented the fact that, in Canberra, we have institutions that are Australia's best, and yet they never receive acknowledgment. He said our sporting heroes are given-quite rightly-civic receptions and receive the adulation of the community, when we should be proud of all of them. I have to 'fess up here and say that perhaps I, as minister for tourism, did not do enough to praise the Australian War Memorial.

Mr Speaker, the Australian War Memorial has won, back to back, the title of best major tourism attraction. That is a significant achievement. If, or when, the Brumbies win back-to-back Super 12 titles, no doubt there will be a reception. The Australian War Memorial, and what its staff have done, is comparable. Yet it has perhaps gone largely unnoticed by the Australian population in general, and by the Canberra population in particular.

It is important that we acknowledge these institutions, because Canberra is the cultural home for the icons of the nation that protect our cultural history, and the people who work in these institutions are our families and friends. They are our neighbours, and fellow residents of the ACT. The support for tourism and cultural endeavour, and the recognition beyond the field of sport that Brian Kennedy called for, is what I am responding to today.

The War Memorial is perhaps the unique building of its kind in the world. It is unique in that no other memorial, or military museum, has managed to blend both functions into one building as successfully as the staff at the Australian War Memorial have done. That is done in such a way, and with such sensitivity, that every item on display becomes, in its own way, a memorial to the endeavours of the men and women who have served us so lovingly and generously over the past 100 years.

The upgrades in the last half a dozen years, with almost $30 million of investment in the physical structure of the War Memorial, allows the 900,000 to one million visitors a year to enjoy it even more. They are served by a staff whose dedication is recognised in these back-to-back awards, with the War Memorial being the best major tourism attraction in Australia.

I think it is important to recognise them and their particular achievements-I spoke to the minister before I moved the motion-because they have done something significant. I believe it also sends a message, beyond the praise that we give to our sporting heroes, that there are other special Canberrans. In that way, we can bolster and reinforce the work of those who work in our tourism industry-in restaurants, hotels, taxis, bars, theatres,

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