Page 1386 - Week 04 - Thursday, 4 April 2019
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Australian personnel. Perhaps if the War Memorial had secure long-term funding commitments and a shared strategic plan with its sister organisations, we would not need to see its doors branded with distasteful ads in the future.
As part of the future of the War Memorial, it is our firm view that the memorial should also tell the story of our nation’s colonisation. There is growing community awareness of what are known as the frontier wars. If we as a nation are to truly face our past, acknowledging the frontier wars as the first chapter within the War Memorial is a vital piece of that puzzle. We need the stories of these wars and massacres told honestly and openly, with respect for the past and today, in order to achieve our full potential as a reconciled nation.
Returning to the broader question of our national institutions, what we believe is missing is the long-term thinking and strategy to guide us into the future. There needs to be a sustained commitment to the role and future direction of our vital national institutions. Now is the time to secure their future. We believe that the way to do that is the establishment of a non-political federal national institutions coordinating advisory council. The Greens would like to see the establishment of a council which brings the institutions together to collaborate to develop a strategic policy which can deliver the appropriate business and budget support and provide inter- and intra-governmental advocacy for its member institutions.
We note that the former Collections Council of Australia has not existed for some time and there is now no similar formal council to coordinate collections, digitisation and general outputs. We believe that the creation of such a council, which includes members with management skills across relevant sectors such as collections, curation, exhibitions and heritage, would be a vast improvement. They could share lessons and data to improve management and activities of all of the institutions. The council could also provide policy and business support advice to its member institutions, while being a fierce and independent advocate for those institutions in the media and at budget time, as well as being able to negotiate effectively with the National Capital Authority and state and territory governments on regional outreach and planning and development issues.
As members may be aware, yesterday saw the release of the final report on the inquiry into Canberra’s national institutions, with 20 positive recommendations. Of particular interest to me and the Greens were recommendations 11 and 13.
Recommendation 11 sees a role for a body similar to the one I have just outlined. Key to the membership of that group is the ACT government. I am very pleased to see that the territory government has been included as part of those recommendations. The chair of the committee that delivered this report today spoke to a need for a clearly articulated rationale and a cohesive narrative to join the institutions together. That is certainly something we support. It is something we have talked about in the past. I think it would be very positive for the future of our national institutions.
Recommendation 13 spoke to the need for the history, culture, and heritage of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to take a much more prominent and public-facing role within the parliamentary triangle. I look forward to
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