27 October 2025: Defending Country President Peter Stanley had this letter in the Canberra Times, under the heading, 'It's time to change the guard at the Australian War Memorial':
'As reported in The Canberra Times, the council of the Australian War Memorial is in crisis (Crisis at the Australian War Memorial, October 21).
After years of challenges evaded, responsibilities denied, and potential unfulfilled, its members are increasingly out of touch with modern Australia.
Representing narrow sectional interests, it desperately needs reform and renewal.
The departure of dinosaurs like Tony Abbott and Greg Melick is welcome, but the expected appointment of new Council members remains uncertain, the Minister (Matt Keogh) seemingly unwilling to order the necessary change of the guard.
The memorial is a cherished national institution, but it must not become further isolated from contemporary Australia.
Crucially, the council needs to demonstrate leadership, decisively repudiating Ben Roberts-Smith, and honestly engaging with the Australian wars (aka frontier conflict).
The memorial belongs to the Australian people, not just to ADF veterans. It's time for the council to fully reflect the nation's views, interests, and values.'
The Canberra Times' Steve Evans has a detailed piece online this morning (too late for the hard copy) on where the filling of the vacancies on the Memorial Council is up to. This matter has been covered in recent pieces on this website: here, here, here.
Pdf of Evans from our subscription. (A version of the article appeared in the hard copy of the Canberra Times 22 October 2025, page 3.) Main points:
There are currently four vacancies on the Memorial Council. Two of the former occupants of these positions, Tony Abbott and Greg Melick, are opposed to better portrayal of the Australian Wars at the Memorial.
Proponents of such portrayal hope that changes to the Council will improve the prospects of such portrayal happening.
Meanwhile, Peter Tinley of Western Australia, an associate of current but elderly Memorial Council Chair, Kim Beazley, has been elected National President of the RSL. (There has traditionally been an RSL senior officer on the Council.) Might Tinley be appointed to the Council, perhaps to replace Beazley, whose term ends on 30 November (a fifth vacancy)?
Minister Keogh's office - the Minister is responsible for the Memorial - has not responded to Evans' inquiries.
Picture credit: Peter Stanley, May 2025. The new Memorial foyer's southern wall. The Memorial depicted there is way pre-expansion; it is one of the original design sketches c. 1927.
