Mr BAYLEY question to MINISTER for VETERANS’ AFFAIRS, Mr PEARCE
RSL Tasmania has long opposed your Mac Point stadium because of the confirmed negative impacts on the values of the Cenotaph. This is Australia’s oldest war memorial and a sacred shrine. Last year the RSL said it had been ‘disrespected and misled at every turn’ by your government about the stadium. Earlier this year, the RSL congress reconfirmed its opposition to the stadium; an overwhelming majority of sub-branches voted to oppose it. Yesterday the new president rearticulated the RSL’s opposition in a letter to members of the Legislative Council. He says:
The Cenotaph stands as Tasmania’s most sacred place of remembrance. It deserves nothing less than your unwavering protection. No mitigation can offset the harm the proposed stadium would inflict on the Cenotaph. [tbc]
Just days after the sombre ceremony for Remembrance Day, why are you so willing to sacrifice the values of the Cenotaph and continue to disrespect the RSL and its members?
ANSWER
Honourable Speaker, I thank the honourable member. I think that is a genuine question that comes from a genuine place, a real place. I certainly appreciate your thoughts and your position on that. I also come from a place that is founded with that respect and that background. Might I say that no place is more significant to me than a cenotaph, particularly that particular cenotaph. Might I also say that I come from a place that, when it comes to remembrance, it’s done not just one day a year, but every day. It’s done every waking moment. I will take you back to a typical day for a soldier, sailor, or aviator in the military. Their day starts at 0730 hours, where they parade and then do PT. They do physical sport, they play team games. It encourages unity, teamwork, courage, respect. They learn to respect their fellow team members.
That embodiment of sport is integral to all of our defence forces and instils and inculcates in them a sense of teamwork embodied in that sport. My point, why I tell you this, is because that every time we go to recognise a game of sport, we also glance and remember those who have fallen and protected our country. I think that is important. I think that is a different aspect to place onto this. I believe in no way will that diminish the significance of our great war memorials, or in fact the service that beholds our nation.
