After some deliberation on the purposes of Parliament, it was found that Parliament House is not a service building, in that it offers no services, as such, except to act as a meeting place for parliamentary officials to discuss parliamentary-type stuff. Mainly how to spend the national budget.
Rather, it acts as a symbol for national identity. Personally, it does seem wasted to have this "symbol of national identity" in Canberra, as although the city is identified as the capital of Australia by Australians, if a foreigner came to this country it is not likely they would choose to visit Canberra and see this monument. When asking people from other countries who had not yet been to Australia what our capital city was, they all said Sydney. What does this say about our national identity? That we should locate it in a place no one knows, or cares to know, about?
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