The "patching holes" comment refers to modern Australia, with its lower social trust, higher diversity, and focus on managing social tensions/inequalities from rapid immigration and multiculturalism, spends more energy on "social repair" (welfare, integration programs, addressing disparities, crime, housing pressures) than on bold, unifying national monuments like those built in the mid-20th century.
National monuments symbolise the nations ambition.
Listen, do you have a point you are trying to make?