The Federal Government has committed half a billion dollars to expand the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and include the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts.
The War Memorial has had a lot of funds spent on it under the stewardship of Dr Brendon Nelson in the past decade.
It is supposed to be brilliant, modern, interactive and poignant.
However, in this time of huge social and economic dislocation, it does seem utter folly to be spending this much money on this particular item.
Surely, with a more modest budget we would still be able to tell the stories of these conflicts for we Australians and other visitors and then put the rest of the money towards out struggling environment during this climate emergency, tertiary education institutions and people who are out of work due to COVID-19.
Email, Oct 24
Susan Wynn, Mannering Park