Page 578 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 14 March 2007
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neglecting to mention a number of things such as the closed schools and the fact that it is very difficult for people even to rent accommodation now. They also got the number of beds in the prison wrong. The government push their ideological barrows at the expense of the bread and butter services that the community need and despite the fact that the ACT economy remains buoyant. But that has got a lot more to do with the federal government, which is creating another 5,000 jobs in the public service in Canberra, than anything this government is doing.
I have already mentioned briefly the complete lack of consultation, which I think annoys people so much about this government and is exemplified in this particular decision. Another issue is that not many of Australia’s great are immortalised in statues in the nation’s capital. There is only one statue of former Prime Minister Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister of Australia. Sir Robert Menzies only has a bust. Even Walter Burley Griffin, who did most to shape the capital, does not appear to have the honour of a statue. He has got a lake named after him.
The curious thing about a statue is that it is such a conservative type of monument and one that has fallen out of favour over the last 30 years. Perhaps the Chief Minister is fond of Stalinist style monuments. Totalitarian states have also been very keen on statues. Indeed, people can remember some Stalinist statues coming down, such as the Saddam Hussein statue. Mr Hargreaves also, by using the Kennedy/Lincoln analogy, has made the statue a laughing-stock around Australia—and it is not even erected yet.
If the Stanhope government wants to honour one of its own, I would suggest it could do so virtually free of cost to the taxpayer. It could name a place after Al Grassby. It could name a room, perhaps a meeting room in the multicultural centre, if it wished to do so. What my motion does is urge this government to scrap this statue, which I think does symbolise your government’s disregard for the community. Many, many people are annoyed that you are wasting so much money on things like this and not providing the basic services people need. It symbolises your disregard for the community, and that is exemplified by the fact that you have not even consulted in relation to it.
I do not believe in opposition for opposition’s sake; often I like to suggest solutions to problems here. In terms of what you can do with the statue, given that I understand it is in seven parts and you have probably already paid for it, or are committed to pay for it, perhaps you could get the Canberra Labor Club to buy it. After all, Al Grassby was a longstanding and honoured member of the Australian Labor Party. Perhaps the Canberra Labor Club could pay for it to go up in the club, and in that way ACT taxpayers would not have to fork out for what is an outrageous expenditure of taxpayers’ money for a statue that no-one seems to want and that has become a very, very divisive issue in this community.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for the Territory and Municipal Services, Minister for Housing and Minister for Multicultural Affairs) (5.49): Obviously the government opposes Mr Stefaniak’s motion. I did not hear a peep from Mr Stefaniak or other members of the opposition when the decision was made and publicised in August 2005, but a desperate Mr Stefaniak will jump on any passing bandwagon if he feels that there might be a vote in it. He has joined those that want to
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