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

Although I do not want to detain the House any longer, I have more to respond to. I agree that $10,000 is too much. Actually, I think $20,000 would be way too much and, in fact, $30,000 would be pretty rich. If you go back to the 2007 sports carnival, which was when you were in government, the subsidisation effectively provided to that exercise was over $34,000.

I will go to the final point of the shadow minister’s question and the intervention of the member for Sturt—the last post. The circumstances with respect to the War Memorial are the same as they were under the previous government—that is, we provide a budget, there is an independent council of eminent Australians and they make decisions about what they do and how they do it with respect to the priorities of the memorial. I think that is a very important principle. I do not think that politicians should be telling them what they should be doing around a very important cultural institution.

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