More than two months ago, Defending Country President, Professor Peter Stanley, and the present author had an op ed published in the Canberra Times encouraging Minister Matt Keogh, responsible for the Australian War Memorial, to give us new members of the Memorial Council, when the terms of four current members expire in September.
This, we said, would continue the good work begun by the Minister last year, when he set up an Expressions of Interest process, calling for the public to submit names for appointment. That process produced three new members of the Council.
Minister Keogh has probably left it too late for Expressions of Interest this time around. He can still, however, ask the Governor-General to appoint four bright new members to the Council.
Here again are the main points, slightly edited, from our op ed.
Refreshing the Council's membership last year should have encouraged it to make progress on having the Memorial properly recognise and commemorate the Australian (Frontier) Wars, which saw the deaths of between 20,000 and 100,000 First Nations people between 1788 and at least 1928. However, after a promising start under Council chair Kim Beazley (proposing the Memorial should depict, in a separate, substantial gallery, what he rightly called the 'dignity of resistance') progress seems to have stalled, partly because of divisions on the Council.
During September this year, four Council members will reach the end of their current terms: Tony Abbott (member for six years; term expires September 18); Sharon Bown (nine years; September 30); Daniel Keighran VC (nine years; September 30); Greg Melick (10 years; September 30).
Their longevity as members is sufficient grounds for their replacement, regardless of their other qualities. Beyond that, Abbott needs no introduction, Bown was once an aide to Brendan Nelson as Minister for Defence, and Keighran wrote in his 2020 autobiography, 'I completely support the former director's [Nelson] vision' for the expanded memorial. Both Bown and Keighran were appointed to new terms in 2022, during the pre-election 'caretaker' period and just after Nelson became Council chair.
Melick has said that commemorating the Australian Wars in the Memorial would 'piss off the majority of Australia's 600,000 veterans' and that the Memorial should only commemorate people who have worn Australia's uniform. Melick's Council term ends with the expiry of his present term as RSL National President. Current RSL membership is barely 25 per cent of the 600,000 serving or former ADF personnel. There is no statutory requirement for the RSL to have a representative on the Council to replace Melick.
Who else is missing from the current Council? There is one historian there now (out of 13 members) though without expertise in Australian or military history. The Council needs more historians and more First Nations people.
Then, more corporate governance expertise on the Council might have prevented some of the problems exposed by the Audit Office report on the management of the Memorial building project.
The Council also lacks young people (members' average age around 60 with three members in their mid-70s) and women (four out of 13). Council member Professor Susan Neuhaus has argued strongly for the Memorial to emphasise women's service.
Who could argue that the Memorial Council should not reflect our diverse, complex nation?
Finally, if the outcome of the Voice referendum has inhibited proper commemoration of the Australian Wars at the memorial, we offer the Defending Country theme.
'Defending Country' applies to all who have fought for Australia or parts of it, just as much to First Australians (Arrernte, Noongar, Wiradjuri and others), defending their Country on Country (and often dying on Country), as to uniformed Australians fighting our overseas wars.
An emphasis on Defending Country does not divide Australians, but treats them equally, Black and White, those not in uniform and those in uniform. Defending Country is a theme that should appeal to a bold, ambitious government.
The War Memorial is one of our most important cultural institutions, visited by around one million people annually, including tens of thousands of school children. Having it powerfully express the Defending Country theme would help Australians see our history - and ourselves - differently. At last.
Picture credit: VP Day, Canberra: Victory in the Pacific Day at the Australian War Memorial main building in August 1945 (Harold Abbott, 1945, AWM ART22923/C174416)
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