Victoria Barracks, Fort Queenscliff, RAAF Williams quick fix is classic Anthony Albanese
To shore up his flagging poll numbers, the Prime Minister embarrassed his deputy while hiding his real intentions, Aaron Patrick writes.
The decision to keep four military sites in public hands was handled in classic Anthony Albanese manner: to shore up his flagging poll numbers, the Prime Minister embarrassed his deputy while hiding his real intentions.
Mr Albanese’s decision to swoop into Sydney’s Victoria Barracks on Sunday and declare the former British Army garrison safe from development was applauded by the wide circle of conservationists, community activists, veterans and political activists from the left and the right who campaigned against the sale plans.
By Monday morning, the site’s future had become less clear. So too three sites in Victoria: Melbourne’s Victoria Barracks, Fort Queenscliff and RAAF Williams, the air base better known as Point Cook.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.On the ABC, Defence Minister Richard Marles didn’t back down. All four heritage sites will be removed from the Department of Defence, which complained the maintenance costs were sucking away funds from elsewhere.
Along with the rest of the sites for sale, they will be transferred to the Department of Finance. What will happen then? That remains a mystery.
Going national?
On Sunday, Mr Marles said: “We will be commissioning the Australian War Memorial to interpret these sites and tell the defence stories here.”
Was the War Memorial, which has just completed the largest expansion in its history, about to go national?
Apparently not. The head of the Canberra-based agency, Matt Anderson, said he was assembling an expert team “to lead the historical interpretation of these defence sites by the public”. The War Memorial will only have an advisory role. Of what is unclear.
Mr Albanese said at his Sunday press conference that Victoria Barracks should be “opened up for Sydneysiders”, a point he made several times.
“What we want is for people to actually have access to this site, to learn about the history of the Australian Defence Force presence here, and give appropriate tribute to it,” he said. “I’ve lived in Sydney my whole life, and this is the first time I’ve been to Victoria Barracks.”
Does that mean the new owner - the Finance Department - will turn Victoria Barracks, which was built between 1841 and 1848 with local sandstone, into a museum builder and operator?
Adding to the mystery, Mr Marles said the Finance Department would receive “some financial return” from “commercial use” of the sites, which is exactly what the public campaign fought.
Mr Marles’ office did not immediately respond when asked for clarification.
To be fair to the minister, he may have been feeling gun-shy after confusing himself on the radio. Instead of stating that the sale of 67 sites would raise $3 billion gross, and $1.8 billion after costs, the Defence Minister flipped the figures.
“The Deputy Prime Minister has made a $600 million error,” his Coalition counterpart, James Paterson, said.
It’s about the polls
Sunday’s decision made it look like Mr Marles had been overruled by the Prime Minister. In reality a problem has been shifted elsewhere by a government fearful of losing its grip.
The Defence Department gets some old (and quite beautiful in some places) buildings off its hands, saving the cost and hassle of maintaining important national heritage.
Almost all military and government staff have already been moved from Sydney’s Victoria Barracks, which used to house a military band and the training command, into conventional offices in the city.
At the same time, Mr Albanese gets to look in touch with community opinion — a quality badly needed for a politician more and more Australians distrust.
A poll Monday morning in the Financial Review put the Labor Party’s support at 26 per cent, two percentage points behind One Nation and only one percentage point ahead of the Coalition. Mr Albanese is looked upon more unfavourably than any other of the major party leaders, according to the Redbridge and Accent Research Poll.
Averages of polls show the government has been in decline since last August.
A slight shift in public sentiment could put Labor behind One Nation and the Coalition, a historic moment for a political system long dominated by two groupings.
That is the kind of shift that happens when governments do something so unpopular — such as selling historic sites — that former Labor prime minister Paul Keating and former Liberal prime minister John Howard agree it is a stupid idea.
