Prime Minister flags Arlington-style war cemetery for Canberra

Masquara said :

johnboy said :

I’d say anyone who’s been nominated for Australian of the Year. Winners of major international academic medals, nobel prizes and near peer equivalents, and the VC winners for good measure.

While we’re at it give the options to all holders of Companion of the Order of Australia (assuming we don’t finally get the knighthoods back), there’s just 406 of them right now and they won’t all want in.

AC awarded for “Eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or to humanity at large” which sounds about right.

How many women among your contenders there, JB? Two per cent maybe?

It’s not his fault women live longer…

Tony wants to build the cemetery on ACT land, rather than commonwealth land. So who pays for construction, maintenance and upkeep?

I already pay enough taxes to maintain the gold-plated infrastructure (seriously: three lanes each direction in a down of 300,000 people?) we were left with by the Federal Government. I’m no fan of a centralised war cemetery either: why can’t Australian towns have the honour of interring the famous people who were born/lived there?

c_c™ said :

It’s a disgusting idea in every possible way. But then it’s just the sort of idea you’d expect from Abbott and his buddies in the RSL, both stuck in another era. Do they think there’s going to be a growth in demand for war burials, planning to whoop the Kaiser are they?

Just a FYI, my understanding is that the RSL is opposed to the idea. Mostly because they envisaged this proposal to require the long composted bones of men in Flanders to be ripped up and transported back to Australia. When I first heard this, I was convinced it came out of a focus group session from The Hollowmen .. laughable really.

johnboy said :

I’d say anyone who’s been nominated for Australian of the Year. Winners of major international academic medals, nobel prizes and near peer equivalents, and the VC winners for good measure.

While we’re at it give the options to all holders of Companion of the Order of Australia (assuming we don’t finally get the knighthoods back), there’s just 406 of them right now and they won’t all want in.

AC awarded for “Eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or to humanity at large” which sounds about right.

How many women among your contenders there, JB? Two per cent maybe?

Love the hubris. ‘You’re a great person. Here’s your eternal reward – being sunk six feet in clay in Canberra. No, screw your loved ones who live interstate. I don’t want to hear about wanting to rest on some beloved hill with which you have some deep personal connection. You’re a national treasure, so into a national facility you go.’

johnboy said :

I’d say anyone who’s been nominated for Australian of the Year. Winners of major international academic medals, nobel prizes and near peer equivalents, and the VC winners for good measure.

While we’re at it give the options to all holders of Companion of the Order of Australia (assuming we don’t finally get the knighthoods back), there’s just 406 of them right now and they won’t all want in.

AC awarded for “Eminent achievement and merit of the highest degree in service to Australia or to humanity at large” which sounds about right.

Top Rioters?

Australia has 102,000 war dead. Fewer than a 1,000 are buried in Australia. Vets seem to want to be buried near their families. I have eleven vets in my immediate family and don’t recall any of them wanting to be buried somewhere special. Local, yes. And c_c, the RSL are not pushing this they are dead (no pun) against the idea.

However, isn’t it interesting that whenever there is a scandal (eg: pollies dipping into the public purse to attend their cousins wedding ‘cross-country) items like this get raised. I’ve lost count of the number of times a scandal on a Friday is met with ‘I think all Australian school kids should be taught about Gallipoli!’, on the following Monday. (Followed by the shock jocks commenting that “Its outrageous that apparently, our kids aren’t being taught the Gallipoli story… I have the Prime Minister on the line…’

But, it seems to work every time.

I swear this comes up with amazingly regularity and gets rejected each time.
They keep suggesting places around LBG. Then there are the issues that people don’t want to bury their family members away from them.

Every town in Australia has some sort of very public war memorial where they list those that served and died in Australia as well as the Honor Roll.

Personally I don’t think it’s needed and it’s doubtful that people would agree to be buried there. It would need a large number of miliatary personell to agree to be buried there. That would take several generations (at the current rate of service deaths) or a major world war with large numbers of service personell to die. Neither of these are particularly pleasant options.

How long has Arlington been around?

No, just no…

Leave it to the yanks, they do this thing well, we don’t. We’ll end up with bogans in Australian flag capes drinking bundies and running around like fucking idiots and telling everyone that doesn’t agree with them that they’re not Oztraylian mate…

Sigh….

Besides, how cool is it to rock up to a nondescript country town to find, to your surprise that (insert whomever) is buried there.

+1.

I nominate Sir John Kerr as a candidate for re-interment in any proposed national cemetery, as just reward for the favour he did Australia back in 1975!