Eric Abetz lends support to Legacy Link name for new Hobart pedestrian bridge

TASMANIAN federal Liberal senator Eric Abetz has supported the naming of a new city bridge over the Tasman Highway after the Legacy movement, as another veteran service group laments the “divisive” campaign that has marred the public vote.

Senator Eric Abetz supports the Legacy Link name for the bridge.

TASMANIAN Liberal senator Eric Abetz has supported the naming of a new city bridge over the Tasman Highway after the Legacy movement, as another veteran service group laments the “divisive” campaign that has marred the public vote.

Online voting for the name of the federally funded $8 million pedestrian bridge, which will connect the Cenotaph with Soldiers Memorial Avenue on the Domain, ended yesterday with the State Government’s Nomenclature Board to now decide on the name.

The three proposed names are Bridge of Remembrance, Legacy Link and Peace Bridge.

The Legacy movement and charity was established in Hobart by Major-General Sir John Gellibrand in 1923 and has spread around the globe.

Senator Abetz said a name based on a national movement initiated in Hobart would be a fitting tribute.

“The naming of this bridge is an opportunity to not only remember our war dead and our returned soldiers but also the significance of the loss and suffering of families due to the sacrifice of their loved ones,” he said. “Nationally, Legacy has grown from its beginnings in Hobart to today caring for over 60,000 widows and their families.”

But supporters of the Legacy name being on the new bridge have encountered a pushback from other veteran service groups, which have argued it would be unfair to name the bridge after just one organisation.

President of Friends of Soldiers Memorial Avenue John Wadsley said the debate about the name had become politically motivated.

“We have no problem with Legacy, we get on very well with them,” he said. “But there is no other organisation asking for it [the bridge] to be named after them.”

Past president of Hobart Legacy Paul Crew, whose letter last month about why the bridge should be named after Legacy inspired a raft of letters to the Mercury, said it would be a special name.

“People have their own views about the name, it’s fine, it’s a democracy,” he said.