STATE Members for Hawkesbury and Riverstone, Ray Williams and John Aquilina (above) have taken part in a heated debate over the bicentenary celebrations to take place next year commemorating Governor Lachlan Macquarie's accession as the fifth Governor of NSW.
Mr Williams began to raise the issue by lobbying the return to the Hawkesbury of the Macquarie statue, which is currently in possession of Parliament House.
"Unfortunately, the statue is now rotting away amongst rubbish and old paint tins in the bottom of the car park of Parliament House," Mr Williams told Parliament.
"This fabulous three-metre statue of Governor Lachlan Macquarie was ripped from its pride of place in the forecourt of Parliament House.
"Hawkesbury City Council has requested that the statue be moved and erected in an appropriate place in the Hawkesbury area for the bicentenary, which I wholeheartedly support.
"I also understand that the removal of the statue has caused outrage in Governor Macquarie's homeland of Scotland and I believe the matter has been raised at clan meetings and with Scottish politicians." Mr Williams said the Scottish Australian Heritage Council president, Valerie J. Cameron Smith, had requested information from the Macquarie 2010 Centenary Committee as to exactly what the State Government was planning to do for the bicentennial event.
Ms Cameron Smith wrote to the parliamentary committee, set up by the Premier, stating the Scottish Australian Heritage Council had been left uninformed as to what celebrations were being prepared after making enquiries to Riverstone MP John Aquilina's bicentenary committee.
The enquiries were said to have been made to prevent event dates clashing with similar events.
However, according to Mr Williams, there has been no indication that there are any dates planned by Mr Aquilina's committee.
"This is completely unacceptable," Mr Williams said.
"The Premier and the chair of the committee need to get their act together immediately and start planning for this significant event."
Mr Aquilina responded furiously to Mr WIlliams, stating the Member for Hawkes- bury's "style cannot resist political muckraking."
"At a time when we have an opportunity to unite Aust- ralians of all political persuasions in celebration of a person who is of such great and genuine historical worth to Australia, the Member for Hawkesbury yet again wants to play politics, pure and simple, for his own nasty edification," Mr Aquilina said.
"The Premier announced the establishment of a 22-member committee that has been working very hard over several months to draw up a specific program for next year.
"The fact that we have been unable to announce the program because so much work has been going on may not suit the Member's agenda, but it does not mean that nothing is happening.
"Once again, the Member for Hawkesbury is taking the opportunity to make some political gain, and he is doing so at the expense of Lachlan Macquarie and at the expense of commemorations that were to be bipartisan and to encompass all Australians. It is to his shame and degradation that he is doing so.
"He ought to hang his head in shame.
"The Member for Hawkesbury has turned something as important as the commemoration of Lach- lan Macquarie into an absolute political farce, which is his aim."
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