Update 9 September 2021: Heritage Guardians submission
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Where do I make a submission?
Here (scroll down to ‘Have your Say’).
When are the submissions due?
How can my submission have the most impact?
The NCA will take very little notice if you simply say, ‘I hate this project’, though, of course, you are entitled to say that.
The NCA’s role is to assess whether the project is inconsistent with the National Capital Plan.
Here there is a handy summary of each of the three Main Works Packages (1: New Southern Entrance, 2: Bean Building, 3: Anzac Hall). Plus links to lots of detail if you want to get into it.
Here there is a handy summary of the National Capital Plan (‘key matters of national significance’). Plus all the detail of the Plan if you want to get into that.
A brief effective submission could compare the summaries of the project with the summary of the Plan.
Some possible sentences:
The changes to the southern facade of the Memorial, as set out in Main Works Package 1, fail to conserve and enhance the significance of the Memorial site, a matter of significance under the National Capital Plan.
The role of Canberra as the symbol of Australian national life and values – an important value in the National Capital Plan – is not well served by the destruction of Anzac Hall (Main Works Package 3), an eminently usable building and epitome of artistic merit.
The destruction of 140 trees (required for Main Works Packages 1, 2 and 3) does not conserve and enhance ‘landscape features which give the National Capital its character and setting, and which contribute to the integration of natural and urban environments’.
Another, less effective option
If you previously put in a submission to the NCA on the so-called ‘early works’ at the Memorial, you could send it in again, preceded by a punchy introduction.
Or, there might be paragraphs in your previous submission which you could use again, preceded by a reference to the NCA’s role in relation to the NCP, as set out above.
Will my submission be published on the NCA site?
If you so wish. Refer here for how you can make this happen (scroll down to ‘Have your Say’ and link). There’s a format you are forced to follow and you might have to show a bit of ingenuity to work around it. Your submission will appear under ‘Public Submissions’ a little further down.
David Stephens
Convener, Heritage Guardians (admin@honesthistory.net.au)
24 August 2021 updated