Angus Taylor (Hume, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) | Hansard source

On behalf of the coalition and the federal opposition, it gives me great pleasure to support the motion moved by the government. We warmly welcome the establishment of the Joint Select Committee on the Centenary of Parliament in Canberra.

Our history must be remembered, our history must be protected, and our history and the stories associated with it must be celebrated. That includes the history of this great parliament and the old parliament just down the hill. In the end, the parliament is the people's house, and the parliament is very much about the history of Australia and the Australian people. As we've just heard from the Prime Minister, our parliament is absolutely central to our wonderful democracy, the greatest democracy in the world, in my view—and long has been.

It was in 1927 that the federal parliament moved from Melbourne, where it had sat for 26 years. It's a much better location here; I'm in agreement. It did take up a beautiful sheep station, but it has become a great city. It came to a provisional building, as we just heard, in the new capital of Canberra. It wasn't very provisional, of course; I'll come back to that! But that building that we now refer to as Old Parliament House was opened on 9 May that year, and that building would remain the site of the federal parliament for 61 years, until 1988, when it moved to this building.

During the opening of the first federal parliament in Canberra, the King's message was read expressing his pride in the new capital city. His son the Duke of York, the future King George VI, was there in person. He captured the aspirational spirit of the Australian people when he said:

One's own life would hardly be worth living without its dreams of better things, and the life of a nation without such dreams of a better and a larger future …

Prime Minister Stanley Bruce delivered an address in which he said:

May those who enter this open door govern with justice, reason, and equal favour to all. May they do so in humility and without self-interest. May they think and act nationally. May they speak with the voice of those who sent them here—the voice of the people.

That day, Australian soprano Dame Nellie Melba sang 'God Save the King', our national anthem at the time. There was a band. A crowd of about a thousand people gathered. It was one below expectations. Given the shortage of accommodation in the new capital, I think it was largely restricted to tents at that point. Consequently, the overcatered event reportedly saw a large quantity of Sargents meat pies left over. Legend has it they were disposed of in a pit where the Treasury building now stands. I think the productivity has gone up since then; sometimes I wonder! RAAF planes flew overhead, and, indeed, the celebration that day was sadly marred by tragedy. Flying Officer Francis Ewen, swept from flying formation, crashed and was killed.

Of course, it was a great moment despite that tragedy. There will be much to remember and celebrate next year at the centenary of parliament in Canberra. I'm sure that all in this place look forward to that special sitting of the parliament in Old Parliament House to commemorate the occasion, and I warmly welcome that opportunity. I feel lucky enough to have sat in the public gallery there in the 1970s with my two grandparents who lived at the time just on the other side of Red Hill, in Garran. I was young and I didn't fully understand what was going on. How could you in this place? I'm still working it out! But what I did know about what was going on was it was important. It really did matter. In fact, it inspired me to want to be part of this place in the future.

What has happened down at Old Parliament House is worth celebrating, and it will be a true honour to be sitting there. I'm sure it will be a very civil question time—

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