Federal parliamentarians have shown recently that they have lost perspective of their priorities. There has been much discussion on how Parliament House has removed the sense of community that existed in Old Parliament House. Recent behaviour has shown that the newer building also induces the politicians to believe they are more important than they actually are. The building makes them believe they are a virtual nobility; princes and princesses swishing in their virtual silks down he marble corridors enacting scenes from ancient tragedies. It is not the politicians who are at fault. It is the building that makes them so.
We made the mistake of commissioning an Italian architect who designed a building, more for Italian politicians who are at home in that kind of environment.
We should not punish the Parliamentarians therefore, by voting them all out of office. We only need to restore them to that place where their feet were on the ground, which is the Old Parliament House.
They will be much happier there and more able to conduct themselves in a manner befitting their purpose.
Despite all the changes that have occurred in our culture since the war, there still exists a sense of national character, a sense of Australianness, from which the new Parliament House has removed us.
I propose that Parliament House be repurposed to accommodate A Museum of Aboriginal Art , which curiously still does not exist.
There would be room also to accommodate the Aboriginal Tent Embassy which seems so exposed in the winter months.
Michael Snape
28th September 2018