This morning saw a triumph for Senator Gary Humphries’ long running campaign to secure more funding for the War Memorial.
Eschewing grace in victory the Senator is now accusing the Prime Minister of capitulation:
The Gillard Labor Government has been dragged kicking and screaming into providing additional resources for the Australian War Memorial. Nonetheless, today’s announcement is welcome.
The Prime Minister’s 11th hour capitulation over her government’s failure to properly resource the Australian War Memorial was driven by their perceived need for a political response to growing and widespread community anger, Senator Humphries said today.
“Today’s decision is the culmination of months of pressure from the community, Tony Abbott and my Coalition colleagues”, Senator Humphries said.
The War Memorial itself is being slightly more circumspect in its victory:
The Director described the injection of additional funding as a welcome boost to the Memorial’s ongoing education and commemorative activities as well as extensive public programs and exhibitions.
“We can now look forward with confidence to meeting public expectations as we plan for First World War centenary activities and in particular the centenary of the Gallipoli landings in 2015.”
Chairman of the Council of the Australian War Memorial, General Peter Cosgrove AC MC (Ret’d) said “it is an extremely good result and a credit to the work of the Director and staff of the Memorial.
Intriguingly there’s no direct thanks to the Gillard Government.
Is the AWM betting that Labor won’t be in power long enough to exact retribution?