‘Reading the Act: what is the Australian War Memorial for?‘ Pearls and Irritations, 19 June 2019
Argues that the Australian War Memorial Act 1980 sets out the responsibilities of the Memorial and that providing a ‘therapeutic milieu’ for veterans – as offered by Director Nelson – is not part of those responsibilities.
The Memorial’s Act makes no reference to veterans. Australians have been conned into thinking that the Memorial belongs to veterans. Like Anzac Day, the Memorial belongs to all Australians. If Dr Nelson wants to fundamentally change the Memorial’s purpose, he should ask Parliament to change its Act. That might open a welcome debate.
Comments section is useful, too. For the Heritage Guardians campaign against the proposed Memorial extensions, go here.
A very valuable addition to the current debate about the expensive, damaging and essentially unnecessary half billion dollar expenditure on the AWM. Especially at a time when other national institutions are being damaged by the impact of continuing cuts by an extremely small-minded current government.