Page 3970 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 9 November 1994
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MR WOOD: You can write it in now, Mr De Domenico. The MPI is without substance. Discussions with the Federal Government will continue to require an acceptable resolution of issues relating to Acton Peninsula, and we will be negotiating on the conditions of our contribution to the proposed gallery development. We will continue, as we have both federally and territorially, to give the highest priority to cultural matters. We have the record. We have done it. These people opposite can only nark about it.
MR DE DOMENICO (4.27): Mr Deputy Speaker, there is one thing I need to say. I feel a lot of envy for the way Labor politicians tend to protect one another in times of crisis. I call this a time of crisis. It was very interesting to hear Mr Wood speak. Mr Wood stood up here and gave credit to the Federal Government. I cannot believe that from the local Arts Minister. Let us have a look at the facts and at what has been consistently said by various Labor politicians.
Mr Wood: Tell us about your documents.
MR DE DOMENICO: Let me tell you about your Government, Mr Wood.
Mr Wood: Establish your credibility.
MR DE DOMENICO: Let us establish the Federal Labor Government's credibility first. Let us have a look at that first.
Mr Wood: Will you then come to yours?
MR DE DOMENICO: Yes, then I will come to mine. Let us do your Federal Labor Government first. After all, they have been in power for 10 years now. Let us have a look at what Mr Hawke said. Do you remember him? He is a former Prime Minister of this country. He was involved in the VITAB affair too, I believe. We believed him about VITAB. Let us see what he said about the National Museum. Robert Macklin wrote about it. This is what Mr Hawke said:
I appreciate the goal of my Cabinet colleagues to open the building of the National Museum of Australia as part of our centennial celebration on January 1, 2001.
That was Mr Hawke when he was Prime Minister. This was obviously pre-1991, before he was dumped. As the next step, let us see what Mr Keating said when he took over. Once again you would think there would be consistency in Labor Prime Ministers. There was, in fact. On 1 March, in the Canberra Times we saw the big headline "PM pledges $26m for museum". The article below stated:
The Prime Minister, Paul Keating, pledged $26 million yesterday towards Canberra's on-again, off-again National Museum of Australia as part of Labor's cultural policy.
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