Australian War Memorial

Government documents released after the election show that the Australian War Memorial’s budget has been cut by 20% since Labor took office in 2007. The AWM is now looking down the barrel of drastic moves like making 1 in 5 staff redundant, and may even close one day a week just to make ends meet.

These aren’t the first cuts the AWM has been forced to make. Only recently highly successful open days were sidelined and the annual Christmas carols event was axed for 2010 due to a lack of resources.

The coming years will bear significant historical milestones as we celebrate the centenary of Canberra in 2013. 2014 will mark the centenary of the beginning of the First World War and 2015 will mark the centenary of the Gallipoli landing. We used to be confident that the AWM would receive the necessary resources to duly and appropriately commemorate important events in Australia’s history and the legacy of our diggers. Frankly, such dramatic funding cuts from the Gillard Government make me wonder where the next cuts will be made.

I condemn the Government for its decisions concerning the AWM’s funding and I urge it to reconsider its actions. The AWM is the most visited national institution in Canberra due to its deep significance to Australian culture, values and history. It doesn’t deserve this kind of penny-pinching just because Labor can’t keep its wasteful spending under control.
I’ll be asking the tough questions of the Government in the coming months and demanding an explanation for these thoughtless cuts. We all know Labor takes Canberra for granted. Let’s put enough pressure on the Gillard Government to send Labor a message that it can’t take Canberra for granted anymore.