Patrick Carlyon: Indifference to Anzac Day services an utter disgrace

Politicians should be ashamed that their lacklustre efforts will deprive many of a chance to gather in remembrance of sacrifice.

South Melbourne Market rocked last Sunday. Crowds massed in a throng. People queued for dumplings or burgers without masks or care for social distancing.

Here was a glimpse of pre-pandemic times, when life was not ordered by rules and regulations, when the world was free of lists of what you cannot do as opposed to what you can.

It seemed like a sign of promise ahead, as does AFL chief executive Gill McLachlan being optimistic about a full-house MCG crowd for the Anzac Day Essendon-Collingwood match.

There have been no new cases for weeks. The vaccine rollout is, despite splutters, going ahead.

Yet Anzac Day services across Victoria remain in doubt. The event appears to have been largely killed off by stealth before it has had a chance to live.

Wreaths won’t be laid where they have been laid for generations. Non-RSL members have been discouraged from attending.

It wasn’t meant to be like this. After a massive backlash to RSL plans to cancel events, Anzac Day was last month pencilled to go ahead.

Yet the announcement has not matched the reality. The discord lies in the detail.

ANZAC Day March down Melbourne's St Kilda rd past Flinders Street Station to the Shrine of Remembrance. Picture: Jason Edwards

RSLs across Victoria have given up trying to stage services. They have been drowned in forms and requirements. Anzac Day plans have been reduced to the jargon of “tiers” and the need for fencing.

Organisers point out that it is easier to go to a market today than it is to attend Anzac Day services in five weeks’ time.

Bendigo District RSL president Peter Swandale has lamented the restrictions.

“The frustrating part is that the rules are good for one but not for the other,” he told this paper. “How can it work for a market, but then tell veterans they can’t march?”

Thousands usually pack Beauty Park in Frankston for commemorations but restrictions mean large crowds cannot be.

“More than 5000 people in attendance means the event is classed as Tier 1, which requires ticketing and fencing — it’s impossible,” said local president Kevin Hellier. “At the moment it won’t happen unless there’s major changes.”

The Anzac Day service hurdles invite questions, similar to Australia Day, about preferred public events and non-preferred public events. Invasion Day protests went ahead on January 26, but more traditional events, such as citizenship ceremonies, were canned.

The official will to make Anzac Day happen — no matter how hard — appears to be lacking.

The most notable public contribution from state Veterans’ Affairs minister Shaun Leane has been a narky outburst about Coalition MPs taking selfies as they lay wreaths on the day.

A few weeks back, he said: “Veterans have made their voices clear about having earned the right to march — and we’ll make sure RSL Victoria have all the resources and support they need to make that happen.’’

Crowds gather during the Anzac Day dawn service in front of the perpetual flame at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Thursday, April 25, 2019. (AAP Image/David Crosling) NO ARCHIVING

This hasn’t happened. No exemptions have been offered, much less solutions for RSL volunteers confronted with more bogeys than the Kokoda Track campaign.

Leane’s tepid support throughout the debate -—a kind of let’s try to make this happen, but there are controls to bow to — contrasts with McLachlan’s leadership of the AFL. If the state government was to oversee footy last year in the same way it has approached this Anzac Day, there would have been no 2020 Grand Final.

Anzac Day appears to be a non-preferred event. Is there ideology driving this, a kind of leftie reflex, long lurking in academic circles, to sniff at the perceived jingoism of Anzac Day?

Has Anzac Day fallen victim for being on the wrong side of politics?

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said: “If people can party, and if people can protest, then we can remember as a nation, and honour our veterans on Anzac Day.”

Does his support reduce Anzac Day to a partisan punching bag, where getting it done is different to appearing to get it done?

Sydney’s Mardi Gras hosted more than 30,000 at the SCG a few weeks ago. If a similar event was staged in Victoria, would the government risk the shrill outrage of being perceived as being less than helpful?

Ordinary Melburnians can go to the South Melbourne Market this Sunday, to line up for lobster and dim sims.

But many will be deprived of a chance to gather in remembrance of sacrifice.

Each Anzac Day features Diggers who talk about how they dodged danger here and lost mates there. They are ordinary people with extraordinary stories; for them, their time at war was both an emotional blot and their greatest source of pride.

They and their families risked their happiness and futures in service to the country.

In return, the state government has failed them. Their day of tribute seems too hard to stage. To use military acronyms, another Victorian COVID snafu has turned fubar. It’s the kind of official response that politically more fashionable events would not have to endure.

Patrick Carlyon is a Herald Sun columnist