‘Abbott wrong fit for War Memorial Council, says campaigner opposing AWM expansion‘, The Riot Act, 7 August 2019 updated
Comment on the kite flown about possible appointment of Tony Abbott to the War Memorial Council. (Update 1 October 2019: The kite having been flown, the appointment was duly made.) The article points to Abbott’s Anzackery credentials and to the already unrepresentative nature of the Council. The article speculates also that Abbott might become Chairman of the Council, or even Director to replace Brendan Nelson.
If Abbott were to join the Council or take Nelson’s job, the latter’s grandiose expansion plans (if they go ahead) could hardly be in better hands. The Memorial would look even more like the commemorative arm of an increasingly militarised state, its broad spaces filled with decommissioned military equipment, its visitors able to watch direct video feeds from the Defence Department, its ceremonial occasions marked by florid speeches, its excesses tolerated, even encouraged.
Nelson has paved the way for Abbott, another failed politician, to oversee an institution which has been able to largely ignore criticism. Abbott would love that.
The article is linked from The Riot Act‘s Facebook page.