The national president of the RSL, Digger James, has called for the next director of the Australian War Memorial to be a military or ex-military person.
A motion at the national executive meeting of the RSL held in Canberra last week called for the position to be filled by a military person. The motion comes after the Government earlier this month filled the position with a senior officer from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs in an acting capacity for a year. The position became vacant following the retirement at the end of the month of Brendon Kelson, who was also a public servant. Mr Kelson, 59, said this week that he did not seek an extension of his term as he always had intended to retire for the Public Service well before 65 to pursue other interests. The Minister, Con Sciacca, thanked Mr Kelson for his excellent work.
Major-General James is to write to Mr Sciacca, putting the RSL view. He said he could understand that the Minister might not want to make a permanent appointment pending the result of the Merit Protection and Review Agency inquiry into allegations of harassment at the memorial, but “”the strong view of the RSL is that the appointment of a civilian is not the right person.
“”Only a military person with knowledge of military leadership would understand the fundamental nobility of the memorial and the fact that it commemorates 100,000 Australians who died in war and hundreds of thousands who served.
“”We think it is wrong to have a public servant to head the memorial.”
There should be an advertising campaign for the position which should state that the appointee would be military or ex-military.
He said the memorial not be compared with art galleries around Australia and he objected moves to introduce entrance fees.
“”It is a memorial,” he said. “”All of the collection is a memorial to Australians who died or served.”
A military appointee would best ensure that the intention of the military historian Charles Bean, who had said the museum element was itself a memorial, would be maintained.
The memorial, in addition to its displays of artefacts, had important function of maintaining the dairies of the units.