It gives me great pleasure to announce that Old Parliament House, Australia's iconic landmark and the seat of national political power for 61 years, has been added to the National Heritage List.
Old Parliament House, the home of our national Parliament from 1927 to 1988, becomes the 31st entry on the List.
The building is a symbol of our nation's political heritage and the place where many of the best features of Australia's democracy were formalised by the country's political founders.
Known originally as Provisional Parliament House and now as Old Parliament House, this building sits in both the heart of Canberra's Parliamentary Triangle and in the heart of our nation.
The Australian Government changed just seven times in the years that the building was the home of the national Parliament. Its Members and Senators witnessed the passage of historic legislation and the creation of new political parties, including the Liberal Party in 1944, the Anti-Communist Labor Party (later the Democratic Labor Party) in 1955 and the Australian Democrats in 1977.
Australia was governed from Old Parliament House through conflict and enormous social change. It is the place where Sir Robert Menzies served his record term as Prime Minister and where Prime Ministers John Curtin and Ben Chifley lay in state. Prime Minister Gough Whitlam addressed the nation from the front steps of the building after his dismissal by the Governor-General in 1975.
Old Parliament House will always be an important part of our political history with its rich collection of original furniture, art and memorabilia helping to illustrate the story of Australia's political customs and functions.
It is appropriate that this place of outstanding significance to our nation receives Australia's most prestigious heritage recognition. The National Heritage List contains places that have played an important role in the development of our nation, such as Captain Cook's landing place in New South Wales, Port Arthur in Tasmania and the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Further representations of our Parliamentary heritage on the National Heritage List include the Royal Exhibition Building, Victoria, the site of the first Federal Parliament in 1901 and the South Australian Parliament Houses, where women first had the right to stand for parliament.