Sponsored Last Post hits a discordant note
The Age
Friday September 25, 2009
BY definition in a secular society, few things are universally recognised as sacred. Remembrance of the war dead is one of them, however, which is why every city and nearly every town has a war memorial that is held in special reverence, as are the ceremonies conducted at them. In larger institutions such as Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance and the Australian War Memorial, these do not only happen on Anzac Day or Remembrance Day but every day, with a bugler playing the Last Post each evening.It is no surprise, then, that the Australian War Memorial's decision to seek commercial sponsorship for its nightly Last Post ceremony has appalled many people. The memorial's director, Major-General Steve Gower, announced this week that because of budget cuts sponsorship had been accepted from the telecommunications company TransACT, and accordingly the company's logo now appears on the lectern used in the ceremony. He did not disclose a sum, but Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin confirmed that the memorial faced an overall budget cut of $1.3 million. Mr Griffin appeared to endorse the sponsorship decision, saying that a strength of the memorial's management was its ability to link the community and corporate Australia €” "but the thing is to make sure it doesn't go too far".Well, it has gone too far. As the memorial's website proclaims, it combines "a shrine, a world-class museum and an extensive archive". These are three distinct things, and what may be acceptable for the second is not necessarily acceptable for the other two, especially the first. If the reduced budget makes it difficult to retain the services of a professional bugler, the memorial's management should seek cuts in other areas instead of sullying the ceremony with a sponsor's logo.
© 2009 The Age
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