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The Honourable Julia Gillard, Mr Speaker, colleagues, Mr Fantauzzo, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.
In the early years of Federation, one of the most vocal advocates of a formal artistic commemoration of key people and events was the artist Tom Roberts.
He had already made his immortal contribution to this effort with his painting The Big Picture. A two-year labour of love completed in 1903, The Big Picture recreates the Opening of the first Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia at the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne on 9th May 1901.
The work is a vast canvas that includes 269 detailed individual portraits of significant figures attending the opening, now hangs in the foyer of the Main Committee Room, upstairs here in Parliament House.
In 1910 Roberts wrote to then Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, lobbying him to support artistic commemoration, saying “Let me ask you to consider the importance of acting early….and let these records be painted…to give faithful representations of the first leaders of the Commonwealth”.
Deakin was defeated at an election soon afterwards, but he clearly believed in the idea, sending a copy of his letter to the new Labor Prime Minister Andrew Fisher, whose government established the Historical Memorials Collection in 1911.
Today, it is Australia’s longest-running commissioning collection and
has commissioned portraits of Heads of State, Governors-General, Prime Ministers, Presiding Officers of the Parliament, Chief Justices of the High Court and works commemorating historic events, including the opening of this building in 1988 and the Centenary of Federation in 2001.
Capturing these important pieces of our nation’s history has created around 270 artworks so far.
On occasion, portraits from the Collection have vied for the Archibald Prize for portraiture, and three have taken out that prize to date: Max Meldrum’s 1939 winning portrait of Speaker Sir George Bell, Joshua Smith’s 1944 portrait of Speaker John Rosevear, and Clifton Pugh’s 1972 portrait of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. The Whitlam portrait is also of historical interest because it was not commissioned by the Collection, as most portraits are, but was acquired at the request of Mr Whitlam himself.
The Collection also includes portraits of individuals who represent a parliamentary ‘first’, including the first Indigenous Australian elected to Parliament, Liberal Senator Neville Bonner, whose portrait was painted by Wes Walters in 1979, and more recently the portrait of my Liberal colleague and the first Indigenous Member of the House of Representatives and First indigenous Minister, the Honourable Ken Wyatt, whose portrait was painted by Mandy Moore.
As a member of the committee that gives final approval for these works, it has been my privilege to view Ms Gillard’s portrait in advance.
I don’t claim to be a fine judge of art, but I believe the most effective portraits capture not only the Prime Minister, but their prime ministership. In considering Mr Fantauzzo’s extraordinary work, I am of the firm belief that the artist and subject have achieved this aim, honouring the ideal expressed by Tom Roberts in his letter of 1910 – ‘faithful representation’ of our ‘first leaders’. In the case of Ms Gillard, she is a first leader in her own right as our first female leader.
Additionally, Ms Gillard, if you will permit me, I might suggest that Mr Fantauzzo has been even more faithful to Tom Roberts by providing us with a new Big Picture. I trust the audience will see what I mean.
I now invite Ms Gillard and Mr Fantauzzo to do the honours and unveil the latest addition to the Historic Memorials Collection.
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