It’s a sad sign of the times that a question mark has been cast over one of the most important days on this nation’s calendar.
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Last week, Fairfax Media reported that the cost of anti-terrorism measures during this year’s Anzac Day commemorations in the Hunter could be passed on to RSL sub-branches.
The perceived need for extra security measures has come after deadly attacks in Europe, where a truck was driven into a Bastille Day crown in Nice, which killed at least 84 people last July, and a similar situation occurred at a busy Christmas market in Berlin on December 23.
Understandably, there is a renewed emphasis on safety in communities across the globe as they mark significant occasions.
But the question of who pays for these measures has already had a negative impact – with the decision made last week to cancel four Anzac Day marches in the Blue Mountains.
The news would have been gut wrenching for RSL sub-branch members in the Hunter, as many of these groups of returned service men and women are not in a position to foot such a bill.
And nor should they have to.
Comments from the Mayor of Maitland, Cr Peter Blackmore, urging the state and/or federal government to cover the necessary costs have been a welcome stroke of common sense.
“It could reach a point where it prices itself out because of something that’s happened somewhere else in the world,” he said.
Obviously, public safety should be paramount.
Our reality, in 2017, is that we don’t know when or where (or if at all) an attack will be made on our communities or our way of life.
It’s well known that terrorism is not only designed to threaten our lives, but our way of life. To begin cancelling Anzac Day marches because of the cost of extra security measures would be a tragic change to the Australian way of life.
It’s simply not good enough for the acting NSW Premier John Barilaro to pass the buck, as he has done in recent days, by saying that all security arrangements for major events such as Anzac Day were a matter for police.
And there is no reason that groups of people, who have already given so much of themselves to defend Australia and all its way of life, should face the financial burden brought on by the increasingly uncertain times in which we live.
