The Australian War Memorial treads reasonably lightly on the Budget as the spending on the Big Build winds down (new capital appropriations of $120.6m in 2025-26 down to $32.0m in 2026-27). On the other hand, 'Annual appropriations - ordinary annual services' go up from $50.6m in 2025-26 to $65.6m in 2026-27. 'This is primarily due', we are told, 'to the 2025–26 MYEFO measure supporting the Memorial’s financial sustainability'. (AFR story.)
It also covers extra staff - average staffing level increase from 323 in 2025-26 to 353 in 2026-27- to work in the expanding building. Staff cost money, or as the Memorial puts it right at the end of the Explanatory Notes, 'The Memorial’s primary liability continues to be employee provisions', up by a touch under $5m in 2026-27.
According to the Budget Papers, one of the 'core operations' of the Memorial is 'Raising awareness of, and to acknowledge and respect, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service for Australia and experiences in all wars and conflict'. The words in bold are apparently an oblique reference to the Australian Wars.
The future for the Australian Wars ('frontier wars') is set out in one sentence on the completion of the redevelopment program, 'including the delivery of revitalised pre-1914 galleries featuring a broader and deeper representation of the frontier wars'.
'Broader and deeper' is wound back somewhat from the original statement by Dr Brendan Nelson, then Chair of the Memorial Council, on 29 September 2022:
The AWM chair, Brendan Nelson, said the memorial’s governing council had decided they will have a “much broader, a much deeper depiction and presentation of the violence committed against Indigenous people, initially by British, then by pastoralists, then by police, and then by Aboriginal militia”. (emphasis added)
Dr Nelson was soon pressured by other Council members into winding this back to 'of modest dimensions' and the fancy dancing has continued since. After a three-month stoush the Council settled for 'broader and deeper' as the wording of its determination (dated 19 August 2022 but not settled till the November) and the Memorial has used it ever since, though not consistently. At one point, it seemed to have forgotten the determination ever existed.
Reference: Department of Veterans' Affairs, Portfolio Budget Statement, 2026-27.
Picture credit: view of the Parade Ground and Stone of Remembrance at the Memorial from the new front steps, December 2024 (supplied)
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