Tuesday, 6 February 2024

St Kilda Captain Cook statue

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:37): (659) My matter for the adjournment tonight is for the attention of the Premier. It concerns a terrible activity that happened just before Australia Day in the City of Port Phillip – the outrageous destruction of the Captain Cook statue. Captain Cook was one of the world’s great mariners, the person who in fact was the first European to sight the eastern coast of Australia – down in your electorate actually, President – at Point Hicks. 19 April 1770 was the date, and it was the first visibility of the Australian eastern coast by a European. I hasten to add the common view that Captain Cook in some way was responsible for settlement is clearly untrue, because he was dead before Australia was settled in 1788. So there is an ignorance there. But he was one of the world’s great mariners. He does hold the position as the first European to see the eastern coast of the Australian mainland at Point Hicks in Victoria. But the idea that you would have this gratuitous and shameful vandalism, destroying an important historical monument that actually does reflect our history – and it is true that Victoria and Australia were settled by the British. It is true that Captain Cook had a significant role in that in the sense that he made reports and later settlement followed in 1788. Of course Victoria was not settled till a lot later than that, in 1834 and 1835, successfully by Europeans.

I note that the Premier Jacinta Allan has promised that she will restore that statue as quickly as possible, so I am asking her to do two things as part of the response to this. One is to stick to her promise and to actually make funds available to have that process of restoration occur in the next 60 days, but I also want her to legislate to stop such gratuitous vandalism. Why is this tolerated? Why are people allowed to tear down a graceful statue that does actually point to the facts of our past? They can be contested – people can have their views about that – but the idea that you would destroy a work of art is frankly very troubling to me.

This gratuitous behaviour, this shameful vandalism, has got to be met head-on. I do not agree with the steps by some in the City of Port Phillip to not put the statue back. I think this is a mistake. I think that we have actually got to have legislation that protects this sort of important statue, and that is what I am calling on the Premier to do – introduce legislation but also act quickly in the next 60 days to restore that important statue.