Transcript of media conference with Vica Bayley, Greens’ MHA for Clark; Cassy O’Connor, Greens’ MLC for Hobart; and John Hardy, CEO of RSL Tasmania, Hobart Cenotaph, 14 June 2024.
Vica Bayley
I’m incredibly honoured to be here today with Greens’ Member for Hobart, Cassy O’Connor, at the Cenotaph – Australia’s oldest war memorial – to announce today that at the request of the RSL and its sub branches, the Greens will be working up and introducing new legislation into the parliament to protect the Cenotaph and its important sight lines.
This site where we are today was specifically chosen in the early 1920s because of its prominent location in around Hobart, and important sight lines have been identified since that time that need to be protected. These are sight lines from the Cenotaph towards the River Derwent, towards the city, towards Battery Point and Sandy Bay.
The Tasmanian government’s Macquarie Point stadium will obliterate many of those sight lines. The RSL its sub branches, and many stakeholders and individuals across Tasmania, are deeply alarmed by the impact that a stadium at Macquarie Point would have on the sacred and the culturally significant values of the Cenotaph. This is an important place, not only for for all Tasmanians, but indeed it’s Australia’s oldest war memorial, and it is incredibly significant.