From the office of Roland Rocchiccioli

It is both wrong and regrettable to alienate Crown land thought “surplus to requirement”. What is deemed surplus in 2026 will — in all probability — be crucial in 2126. Ballarat and Bendigo will — 100-years hence — be important regional satellite cities of Melbourne with their own metropolitan areas.

The federal government’s announcement of their intention to dispose of Crown land is totally mystifying. A grave miscalculation in judgement!

The government has identified 67-defence sites for potential sale which they posit are vacant, or underutilised. The alienation of the Crown holdings will, potentially, generate up to $1.8-billion.

While it may, theoretically, represent sound business acumen it demonstrates an ominous lack of concern for the future, and what will be required to satisfy the prevailing ethos.

In what might be classified as a moment of profound intellectual eccentricity, the Victorian Labor government disposed of Crown land surrounding Ballarat’s railway station.

As surely as night follows day, in 100-years, or even 75 — when Ballarat has grown to double its size — the land will be required to accommodate another 6-railway platforms. Axiomatically, the two existing platforms will be inadequate to demand.

Preposterously, an independent audit of the Australian Defence Force department’s 3-million-hectare estate argues many of the facilities have already deteriorated beyond economical repair.

Praise be, this same organisation was not invited to conduct such an audit on Rome’s Coliseum; or Frauenkirche, Dresden — destroyed by Allied bombing, 1945. For 50-years the church lay in ruins — a War Monument of rubble.

Following Germany’s reunification the church was rebuilt using thousands of the original stones; or La Fenice Opera House, Venice — one of Europe’s most celebrated houses. Truly glorious, it was all-but-razed by fire in 1996. The world wept at the loss. Restored to its original, opulent 18th-century design it reopened in 2004.

The dubious premise proffered for the sale is imbued with less wisdom than the decision to privatise the Commonwealth Bank for $8-billion and which now has a worth of $286-billion. It would not take a mathematical genius to recognise there is, feasibly, a gaping, fiscal anomaly!

Those properties being proposed for disposal include the Victoria Barracks in Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne. Categorically, it would be unmitigated lunacy — real estate and architectural vandalism — an abrogation of parliamentary responsibility — to sell the imposing, bluestone Victoria Barracks on St Kilda Road. They should, and must, remain the property of the Nation for all time.

Put simply, we could not afford to build it again. More troublingly, we are not possessed of the skilled artisans. Patently, such a packet of prime real estate will never again be available in the city precinct.

Where — one wails in Corinthian sorrow — are our men and women of vision; those elected representatives gifted with the facility to imagine beyond the short-term; who are bursting with the wisdom and foresight required to envisage the potential zeitgeist and the prevailing needs of the next century.

We are too eager to focus short-term — to heedlessly travel the most expedient path regardless of long-term impact; and to take the route of least resistance.

We are not a Nation of dullards. We are creatively capable of punching above our weight. If the Defence Department no longer requires the spaces then let them be re-purposed.

Let us be truly bold — not profoundly stupid!

Roland talks with Brett Macdonald on radio 3BA Mondays at 10.40am.