HANSARD
SITTING CALENDAR
SEARCH
LIVE BROADCAST
Hansard Dynamic Subject Index
House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-11-01 Daily Xml
Contents
Pdf Xml

INTEGRATED MUSEUM

The Hon. R.B. SUCH (Fisher) (11:50): I move:

That this house urges the state government, in conjunction with the Adelaide City Council, to create an integrated museum that will showcase the social, political and economic history of South Australia and the many achievements of its people.

The member for Bragg said that I am persistent; that is probably a nice way of saying stubborn. I have tried for many years to get a commitment from the state government and the Adelaide City Council by way of a representation letter to create a comprehensive history museum in South Australia.

We are one of the few places that I know of that does not have a social, political, economic history museum. We have a good Migration Museum, but it is limited in its focus. We have Tandanya, but we do not have a facility that showcases what people have done and achieved in this state, including Aboriginal people and people who have come here in more recent times, notwithstanding what the Migration Museum does, as I said earlier. It should all be in one place where locals and tourists can share in acknowledging what has been achieved over time in this state.

I am not an orphan in seeking this. The former premier Dr John Bannon, who is very keen on history, Professor Dean Jaensch and many others have actively sought to have a history museum created in this state. The history trust is supportive and I know that Margaret Anderson, the chief executive, has been very supportive over time.

I will just highlight some of the achievements, and there is quite a list. South Australians should be proud of what was done here, even when settlement began with Europeans. It was meant to be a special place. South Australia had a very progressive social commitment towards Aboriginal people and so on. Some of those things were lacking in other states, so South Australia has a different history to the other states.

Just to mention a few, we had Australia's first police force in 1838 and adult male suffrage was granted in 1856, and that included Aboriginal men. In 1856 Aboriginal men were able to vote in South Australia. It did not last beyond Federation in 1901 because the other states would not accept any Aboriginal person having a vote. So Aboriginal men lost the vote when we had Federation, as did Aboriginal women, who got the vote here in 1892.

Ms Chapman: 1894.

The Hon. R.B. SUCH: Sorry, 1894, as the member for Bragg corrects me. We have in our chamber showcased the achievement of women's suffrage here, and that included Aboriginal women, many of whom were actually quite active in voting subsequent to that 1894 decision. Once again, taken off them in Federation, because the other states, which were more racist than we were, would not agree with Aboriginal people having the vote. So shame on them. We should be proud of the fact that we pioneered votes for Aboriginal men and women back in the 1800s.

Trade unions were legalised here in 1876. You would think that the government, being basically responsible, would be supportive of having that acknowledged and showcased and displayed. The first juvenile court, 1890. I have mentioned adult women being given the right to vote. The first public housing authority, 1936, which we were talking about earlier. The first female judge in Australia, 1965. The list goes on and it includes development of the photocopier which I have mentioned here before, developed at Woodville; the stump-jump plough; and a whole lot of innovation in agriculture and technology. All sorts of things have been achieved here but we do not showcase to locals and tourists what has been achieved. We used to have a constitutional museum next door in what is Old Parliament House. That got axed. We do not showcase any of that now.

We only partly showcase some of the Aboriginal culture that we have in storage. I personally would like to see an extensive living art centre with Aboriginal people directly involved, similar to what is done in New Zealand with the Maoris. As I understand it, our natural history museum has the biggest collection of Aboriginal artefacts in Australia but we do not showcase most of those. If you want to do the Aboriginal culture justice, you would have to spend $100 million or more to create a fantastic centre, but more people would come from overseas to see that than they would to see the refurbished Adelaide Oval, I guarantee that.

Professor Dean Jaensch has made some points in support of the social history museum. He said in an article in The Advertiser several years ago that we are behind the other states, and that is true, in recognising our history. Western Australia has its own constitution and political museum; New South Wales has a long history of publishing their story. Most state governments have funded the production of excellent histories of their parliaments, but, according to Dean Jaensch, in South Australia we show little interest.

I think it is a shame on successive governments and, indeed, this parliament, that we have not really gone to any great effort. We do not make much effort even in relation to this parliament. We bring in students, but there is nowhere that they can gather to be informed about the history of the parliament other than the chambers themselves. It is about time we took a bit of pride in what we have done here and what we do and stop selling ourselves short.

There has been little recognition of our contribution to Federation. We did very little in terms of the Centenary of Federation. The sesquicentenary of the first opening of parliament was only barely celebrated here. These are some of the points by Professor Dean Jaensch, and I agree with him.

If you look at other places around the world which are a bit more civilised than we are, in Wellington, New Zealand, they have the national museum, of course, which is an excellent museum, Te Papa, but they also have the Museum of Wellington called City & Sea, and that is the museum that I believe we should try to emulate here. It is managed by the museum trust and it gets most of its funding from the city council, and that is why I am trying to get the city council on board with this motion. Even though the museum would be focussing on South Australia as a whole, it would be located in the city.

In the Museum of Wellington City & Sea they feature their social history. They have over 100 photographs of Wellington at the beginning of the 20th century. They showcase aspects of Maori culture, which I think we should do in our comprehensive museum. I do not intend it to be a European only museum, it should highlight Aboriginal culture. Sadly, many Aboriginal people know little of their own culture—certainly a lot of the young ones going astray know little about their own culture; and I would say that most South Australians know next to nothing about traditional Aboriginal culture and some of the values and fantastic elements of it.

The City of Christchurch, Adelaide's sister city, has a museum. Sadly, as we know, Christchurch has suffered recently from the earthquake, but it has a museum. Like Wellington, it does not have anywhere near the population of Adelaide, yet it seems to be able to showcase its achievements. Indeed, Christchurch has a population of about 400,000 and Wellington 300,000. Adelaide has over a million people, yet we cannot seem to get the energy and resources to showcase what we have achieved.

I have visited quite a few museums around the world; there are a lot of different ones. Singapore, apart from the Changi, it has got a philatelic museum. It has all sorts of other museums there. Canada has got a shoe museum in Toronto and a textile museum. Throughout Australia there are a lot of other museums. There is the Hyde Park Barracks Museum in Sydney. Of course, we have the National Museum in Canberra, and Melbourne has a museum—it is not a big one, but it has got a museum.

When you go around the world you will find that other people are proud of their history and are prepared to showcase it, and tourists want to see and learn about the people who live in a place like this. Even this week I had an opportunity to look at Canberra's little museum. It is not a big museum, but even little old Canberra can have a museum, and they have it integrated with an art display. At the moment it is featuring some of Sidney Nolan's work.

Canberra can showcase its history, showing the drawings and whatever of the planning of Canberra, but in Adelaide we do very little. Occasionally the City of Adelaide does some displays and has an archive section but nothing of the scale of what is done in most other places around the world.

Hopefully, one day—and hopefully it is not too far off—we will get a comprehensive museum in South Australia. We have got a fantastic natural history one, but I want to see one that showcases Aboriginal culture, European settlement (recent and old) and one which tells people about the achievements here and the inventions. The list of inventions and innovations in South Australia is quite amazing and ranges from the first crematorium in Australia right through to equal pay for female police going back to about 1920.

We have pioneered in a lot of areas but we are not prepared to showcase it to our locals. All our children should understand and know our history and what has been achieved here, and that would help inspire them into all sorts of fields and medical endeavours. We have had some fantastic developments from scientists from Adelaide University in the medical sphere over time, yet the average citizen in South Australia would know little or nothing about what has been achieved.

I commend this motion and I hope that, in the not too distant future, we actually get to a point where we do have a comprehensive social history museum. As I said earlier, it will certainly attract tourists and locals alike, and the sooner we get on and do one (that is, the government and the city council) the better.

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (12:04): I move to amend the motion as follows:

Delete the word 'urges' and substitute 'notes the calls for'; and delete the word 'create' and substitute 'investigate the possibility of creating'

The new motion would thus read:

That this house notes the calls for the state government, in conjunction with the Adelaide City Council, to investigate the possibility of creating an integrated museum that will showcase the political and economic history of South Australia and the many achievements of its people.

I want to thank the member for Fisher for bringing the original motion. I think it has a lot of merit, particularly in relation to Aboriginal history, local Aboriginal history, the suffragette movement and the struggles for equal pay and that sort of thing. I think he is right in pointing out that we were pioneers and we should be celebrating that. I know that other members in this place would agree.

It is true that History SA currently exhibits and interprets South Australia's social history collection material through its sites, and the member for Fisher mentioned some—the National Motor Museum, the South Australian Maritime Museum and the Migration Museum. However, it is acknowledged that an integrated museum that showcases the social, political and economic history of South Australia could be of benefit to the state. So, this museum of South Australian history is a proposal that in principle warrants further investigation.

Debate adjourned on motion of Mr Griffiths.

PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS
MEMBERS
GET INVOLVED
ABOUT PARLIAMENT
VISIT
LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY
CONTACT