Page 1387 - Week 04 - Thursday, 4 April 2019
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
hearing more on a proposal to relocate the Australian Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, AIATSIS, from its current location on the Acton Peninsula, and how this will be developed under the leadership of and in comprehensive consultation with Indigenous Australians. I was very encouraged by both the words of the committee and comments from the chair in the media today about needing to increase the prominence of Indigenous culture in the parliamentary triangle. I do not have an exact view on how that should be done, but the very fact that it is recommended in this report in such a positive way gives me great optimism that we can find a way forward on this.
I believe that there is also a need to continue this conversation with regard to the tent embassy which, it could be argued, has become a de facto institution as the longest continuing protest site in the country, if not the western world. Certainly that is a part of the cultural and historical discussion of this country.
My motion today largely reflects on the importance of the cultural institutions here in Canberra and the fact, I believe, that successive federal governments over a sustained period of time—my remarks are not targeted at a particular government—have neglected the needs of national institutions. They have not provided the funding to ensure that they can protect and preserve our important historical artefacts and the culture of this nation and continue to tell our stories effectively. We need to ensure that they have adequate funding to do the job that we expect them to do. I have spoken about my views on the War Memorial, and our views on that.
I call on members to express our disappointment at the failure to properly fund our national institutions and to join together to advocate for these institutions. They are part of the fabric of this city. It is a great privilege to be the city that hosts these institutions. We are very lucky to have them on our doorstep. I must confess that, probably like many other Canberrans, despite having such great institutions on our doorstep I probably do not go to them as often as I would wish to. That perhaps reflects the role of an MLA, where we tend to be focused on very local issues. But those terrific institutions sit right on our doorstep. We are probably all in the same boat: when we travel overseas we go to those sorts of institutions in other countries, and perhaps we forget to go to them on our own doorstep.
I urge the federal government to establish a non-political federal national institutions coordinating advisory council, for the reasons I have outlined in my remarks today. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (3.31): It seems that Mr Rattenbury spent the vast majority of his speech talking about the War Memorial, and I note that the motion does not actually call on anything to do with the War Memorial. It just “notes that the War Memorial”. Yet he said in his speech many things about what is Australia’s premier attraction and is, I think, a fine institution that honours the commitment of hundreds of thousands of people that have served our nation.
Really what this motion is all about is an excuse to bag the War Memorial, because that was what the motion is. That is what the speech was. It was just a rant about the War Memorial. But obviously Mr Rattenbury either did not have the guts or was not
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video