I would like to use my contribution to the Budget debate to support a project for Melbourne that I consider to be of international significance and to help kick off a major campaign to secure the long-term integrity and better international understanding of that project.

Of concern to me is the need to secure World Heritage listing and protection for the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne. This is a most important historic building in Australia and one which wins considerable public sympathy from anyone who has the joy of visiting it.

I believe that this campaign now enjoys bipartisan support at a state and federal level, but it deserves far greater public involvement and merits an active citizen's campaign to secure the international recognition that this beautiful and socially important building deserves.

My personal interest in the Royal Exhibition Building dates back to the early 1970s as a teenager who took an interest in this great place and started to understand it as an individual. I cannot imagine anyone not falling in love with that building after first seeing it. But of course this goes well beyond personal affection; it goes to the point of realising the cultural significance of this building in Australia's history and its international significance in the role it played in 1880 and subsequently.

My later interest was having the pleasure, as Minister for Major Projects, of overseeing as part of the museum project the complete external restoration and rehabilitation of the Royal Exhibition Building, and therefore being able to deliver on the building being returned to its original state as it is now in the year 2001, and to ensure that it can be enjoyed by future generations in a proper environment rather than the artificial one of the post-World War 1 and, in particular, the post-World War 11 period.

Support for securing World Heritage listing goes back some time, and I am delighted that now this appears to be a bipartisan initiative. I am also very pleased in this context to be able to advise the house, and probably most members of the public, that the commonwealth government has decided to take steps itself for the first time in history to protect the building and to seek its potential addition to the World Heritage list.

In a letter dated 28 May from Senator Robert Hill, the federal Minister for the Environment and Heritage advises as follows:

I congratulate the Howard Government on taking this initiative; it is the first federal government to do so. Of course the initiative needs the active support of the state government, and a broader campaign is needed because the test for World Heritage listing is a very tough one. With respect to the World Heritage authorities, it is a test that is set in the northern hemisphere and a building in Australia that dates back to 1880 may not be seen contextually as being historic from a northern hemisphere perspective. I ask that we all unite to convince the World Heritage Committee to place the Royal Exhibition Building on the World Heritage List and recognise its international cultural heritage significance.

I am very pleased that on 15 September 1999 the then coalition government announced it would seek that outcome. A press release of that day announcing a policy entitled 'A new agenda to continue building Victoria's future', states:

It was a bold and important initiative, and the setting had been put in place for the state government to take the necessary step of approaching the federal government to get it done. Although there has been a discernible and unexplained delay in this action being followed up by the new government, I welcome the fact that it also supports this outcome. I believe our actions should be bipartisan and that we should jointly approach the significant hurdle of getting this building recognised, without any sense of party politics.

Let us turn to the World Heritage significance of this building, which is not far from Parliament House. The building strikes a degree of emotional support from any individual who visits it because of its beauty, stature, architectural purity and delightful surroundings. However, the building goes well beyond being of local significance - it is of World Heritage significance. It is the most complete surviving architectural expression of the buildings of its genre. In particular it is the greatest and most complete surviving example of exhibition buildings in the context of the international exhibitions that occurred in the late 19th century in Melbourne, Paris, Philadelphia and London.

Its construction in 1880 involved the use of cutting-edge technology. It was the pacesetter - it led the world - in the use of electrical lighting for internal illumination, which until that time was regarded as unachievable. It was achieved for the first time in the world in Melbourne. It is a distinct building and has an internationally significant architectural design.

In the technical terms required for World Heritage listing, I believe it has 'outstanding universal value'.

The Royal Exhibition Building was built in grand style in 1880 for the international exhibition of that year. At the time it was called the palace of industry, and was also used for a global exhibition in 1888. Its construction, as well as its use, reflected the wealth of Australia in the late 19th century and part of its historical significance is the era it reflects. As well as the wealth from gold and the wool industry it reflected the buoyant upsurge in Australian nationhood.

There are other buildings of its period in other countries, and it is in this context that it has great international significance. In 1851 the Crystal Palace Exhibition Building opened. It was regarded as being spectacular but unfortunately was destroyed in 1936.

Other such buildings were those built for the 1867 Paris exhibition; the 1873 Vienna Exhibition Building, which unfortunately was also destroyed; the magnificent surviving Philadelphia Arts Hall, built for the 1876 Philadelphia exhibition; and the most memorable of all, the Eiffel Tower no less, the surviving piece of architecture from the 1889 Paris exhibition.

Physically the Royal Exhibition Building forms part of this extraordinary period of confident and rich architecture. It is the grand surviving example. Because it has not been destroyed by fire or the act of man but has been preserved, perhaps by good management as well as by fate, we have the grand surviving example in our capital city of Melbourne. The building is noted for its cruciform shape and its large central dome. It is also distinct because it is surrounded by the Carlton Gardens.

I am pleased that 2001 saw the culmination of the restoration program, which resulted in the restoration of the building, the protection of the Carlton Gardens, and most importantly, the demolition of the ugly, inappropriate additions that had been made in the 1950s and 1970s.

One of my most cherished moments as Minister for Major Projects was authorising the destruction of all of the bolt-on structures at the north-eastern part of the Royal Exhibition Building. People might forget them now, but they were the large three-storey, mirror-walled ugly additions to the Royal Exhibition Building that not only destroyed the aesthetics of the entire precinct but also forbade generations of Australians from enjoying the complete historic building. Now as one approaches the building one can see all of it, and in particular the north face, which has been completely opened up for public inspection for the first time since the First World War. We can enjoy the fact that for the first time natural sunlight can enter the building from that side, because in the past all the windows had been blocked off.

The building also has a cultural significance, being the place where the first meeting of the first session of the new Commonwealth of Australia Parliament was held, and also being the home of the Parliament of Victoria from 1901 to 1927. The building's cultural significance is a key part of the recommendations for its future preservation and recognition.

The National Trust of Australia is one of the bodies that have long supported the building being properly protected and looked after. In an email to me of 16 March, Randall Bell, chairman of the trust, states:

I support the long-term work of the National Trust of Australia, and in particular the work done in the 1990s by the then leader of the trust, Simon Molesworth. His work and the work of others has struck a chord with all levels of government.

Victoria is now in a position where the Howard government' s initiative allows it to prepare the case for the permanent recognition and preservation of the Royal Exhibition Building. I do not believe any individual who has visited the building would disagree with that action. Certainly all the people who attended the celebration of Australia's centenary of Federation in the Royal Exhibition Building's Great Hall would have been struck by the beauty and significance of that structure. Everyone who went there that day marvelled at the architectural achievement the building represented and Victoria's good fortune that the building had survived this far, particularly through the indifferent period of the 1950s and 1960s.

My plea is that we ensure there is adequate funding in the long term for the Royal Exhibition Building and adequate funding for its excellent neighbour, the Museum of Victoria - there could be no more perfect neighbour for a heritage building than a museum - and that we work in harmony to ensure the introduction to the world of this great piece of Australian cultural heritage.

All of Australia's World Heritage listings are from the natural environment. I do not detract from any of those successful nominations, as they are all desirable and welcome, but it is disappointing that no piece of Australia's built environment is on the World Heritage list.

World Heritage listings are not defeated - they are just not progressed. One significant piece of the built environment that has been nominated for the World Heritage listing by the Australian government, but which as of this date has not been successful, is the Sydney Opera House.

I suspect that the Northern Hemisphere judges felt that such a contemporary building could not be part of the world's significant built heritage. With due respect to them, I believe they are wrong. The Sydney Opera House should be recognised as a significant part of the worlds built heritage which happens to be located in Australia.

The other great building in Australia but from a different century is the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton. I use this brief speech to express my support for the long-term project of ensuring the preservation and recognition that the building deserves. It is my belief that with bipartisan support that can be achieved. My enduring hope is that we will get other people from around the world to visit a building that will simply take their breath away.

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