Tuesday, 14 May 2024

Heritage protection

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (20:43): (889) My adjournment tonight is for the attention of the Minister for Creative Industries. Many of us will have been shocked by the senseless and bizarre destruction that has occurred in Bendigo, and this is a broader pattern that I think we are seeing. The recent story is of the Chinese dragons, including the oldest complete parade dragon Loong, imported to Bendigo more than 100 years ago – the oldest parade dragon in the world – and Sun Loong, the other dragon at the Golden Dragon Museum in Bendigo, which have been attacked in this shameful way by people who have invaded this important museum. We have seen this elsewhere in Bendigo, with the Great Stupa being attacked as well. And further around the state we have seen this with the Captain Cook statues – two of them attacked now, the shameful destruction of those being done in a way that is not respectful of the heritage of this state.

Some of these items and the dragons, for example, are heritage listed and should be fully and utterly protected. The point here is that people have gone in and they have done this destructive activity – oily liquid used to inflict damage or, in the case of the Captain Cook statues, just used industrial-scale equipment to damage an important part of our history. The Minister for Creative Industries needs to review the protections that are there. He needs to review the response by government – stiffen the response. The government needs to make sure that people who are going into museums are not able to do these sorts of destructive steps. I mean, it is just extraordinary that people could walk in and destroy an artefact, an important heritage item like the dragon, in this way. I think most people in the community would think this is a terrible and destructive response. The minister needs to review these matters. He needs to find out what can be done to improve protections – what steps can be taken and whether there is some broader response that can be taken. I am not able to ask about legislative changes, but there are other responses that can be taken. I do not believe that people should be allowed to take these steps that destroy important parts of our history. Captain Cook: April 1770, the first sighting of the eastern Australian coast by a European was actually in Victoria at Point Hicks – let us be quite clear. I want the response from the minister that he actually gets into these matters seriously and protects – (Time expired)