Alan Griffin (Bruce, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

and its importance, as the shadow minister interjects—and I agree. But it has also opened up the other argument, which is: if a memorial in Ballarat—outside the Capital Territory—can be of such significance, is there a possibility that other memorials might be considered in the same fashion? That was the very question that the previous minister was concerned about when he came to his view on funding implications. The government took the view that it was worth while putting in place a process to allow individual memorials to be considered but that we should ensure that that would not occur lightly. It is incredibly serious for a memorial to be granted such status. On the funding issue, I guess what we tried to do was to be up-front straightaway. There is no ongoing funding, there will not be ongoing funding and that is the way it is. That is the position of this government and will remain the position of this government with respect to memorials outside the national capital.

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