Page 1476 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 7 May 2008
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I stress that trading as we know it on Anzac Day will not be impacted by this bill. If Harvey Norman wish to open at 1.00 pm, they should go for their lives. In keeping with the spirit of Anzac, as people move away from the Anzac commemorative services they go through to the afternoon and go on to other activities, and that is in keeping with the tradition of Canberra and the way that we observe the Anzac spirit here.
I have received staunch support for the need for such legislation from a broad spectrum of the ACT community. At post-dawn service functions this past Anzac Day the proposal that I put out for social testing was overwhelmingly and enthusiastically supported by diggers who have served their country and who deeply understand the importance of this legislation. It was also supported by their families. As we tested the concept, they very much thought that this was the case. I spoke to senior RSL officials as well in the week leading up to Anzac Day and on Anzac Day, and they were quite adamant that there is a gap in legislation that needs to be plugged, and they thought it entirely appropriate that such legislation be introduced into the ACT.
As an ex-serviceman myself and now being an elected representative, I feel I have a responsibility to uphold and defend the sanctity of an event that remains one of the most significant in our nation’s history. ACT residents deserve to commemorate the solemnity of the day without unnecessary distraction. I take that responsibility seriously. We all bring to this place our various life experiences, otherwise we would not be here. I feel I have a duty to uphold the Anzac tradition, and my tabling of this legislation is but a small part of that duty.
Many Canberrans have approached me this year to register their absolute concern and bewilderment at the plan for this year’s balloon festival to fly balloons on Anzac Day morning. In the week leading up to Anzac Day this was a concern that was widely expressed. The Stanhope government completely missed the mark with their plan to incorporate the festival with Anzac Day. It was also extraordinary that the Chief Minister’s Department did not consult with the peak body in this country or in the ACT on veterans matters—the RSL. It is even more extraordinary—this is a bit of history that this place needs to have recorded in Hansard as part of the foundation and part of the justification for the tabling of this legislation—that this government did not consult adequately with the Australian War Memorial, another of the peak bodies that should have been spoken to and communicated with by the government in the lead-up to Anzac Day. I have been told by the RSL that the Stanhope government and the Chief Minister’s Department only spoke to the Australian War Memorial in the week prior to Anzac Day and fundamentally told them that it was a fait accompli that the balloons would fly on Anzac morning.
Certainly Major General Crews, the national President of the Returned and Services League, was clearly of that view, and in the communications that he had with the Chief Minister’s Department he was clearly of the view that this was a done deal. There was no prior consultation; it was “By the way, I’m now consulting with you that we have decided to fly the balloons on Anzac morning. Is there anything you’d like to discuss about it?” “Is there anything I would like to discuss about it?” I think was the response from Major General Crews to that particular question. Mr Brodie,
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