The Hobart City Council will spend $9,000 to replace stolen and damaged memorial plaques honouring fallen soldiers, despite questions over insurance and ownership.
The plaques at Soldiers Memorial Avenue were stolen earlier this year and later dumped outside Bellerive Police Station. Most were damaged and need resetting.
The grant will go to the Friends of Soldiers Memorial Avenue, which installed the plaques in 2011. Council does not own them.
At Monday’s meeting, Councillor Ryan Posselt questioned why ratepayers were funding replacements for privately owned assets.
“If these are not our plaques, why are we expected to provide the vast sum of their replacement?” he said.
“Wouldn’t a grant normally go through some sort of competitive process or a process beyond an application to have them replaced?”
Council staff said the request was made in line with normal procedure.
Councillor Ben Lohberger raised concerns about setting a precedent if the plaques are vandalised again.
“I’m just a bit worried that the council may become responsible for all of them, which I suspect would be an extremely big, large bill,” he said.
But Councillor John Kelly defended the decision, noting council had previously spent about $100,000 on an interpretation panel for the vandalised William Crowther statue.
“Here we are snubbing, raising our eyebrows at giving a donation to this organisation on the grounds that ‘where’s the insurance’ and ‘is this going to happen again’?” he said.
“We’re treating this organisation and those people who’ve lost their lives to this city with total disrespect.”
Alderman Marti Zucco agreed, saying the city needed to send a “very clear message” against vandalism “no matter what the cost is”.
“We’re standing here arguing and debating about $9,000,” he said.
The grant passed unanimously, with Councillor Posselt abstaining.
Council also contributed $2,000 worth of fabrication crew time to help reinstall the plaques.
