Allan Takes Aim Blog

 First published The Chronicle, Tuesday 25 January, 2011  

 What of Canberra’s future? Will it be a city with industries that add to its economic health, a city full of hope and promise, a city in which culture thrives, or will it be like the German city of Hamelin post the legendary Pied Piper, a city of geriatrics, absent of youth? But whatever its future I hope it will avoid the terrifying fate of becoming a city of monuments built by politicians as legacies of their own self perceived brilliance and that of other self-important wannabes. 

Let me put Hamelin in context. In the 13^th century, Hamelin was so infested by rats that its Burghers, desperate to get rid of them offered a travelling Piper, known as the Pied Piper – who was said to have a magic pipe on which he could play tunes that made animals follow him – a contract to lure the rats away from the town. And so began the legend: the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

The Piper agreed, hypnotised the rats and lured them over a cliff into the sea where they drowned. Unfortunately, not knowing the Piper could also hypnotise children, the Burghers did not pay the Piper his contract fee. Furious, the Piper took his revenge by piping a tune that drew the children away from the town, leaving behind the old, disabled and grieving parents.

In a loose sense, Canberra could be compared to Hamelin. Substitute politicians for Burghers and take note that its young people are following the sound of pipes from other places and leaving Canberra because some politicians and other self-important people don’t seem to care about keeping their promises.

For example: the Chief Minister promised to cure Canberra’s affordable housing problem a promise that had some developers rubbing their hands in glee at the thought of more land being made available to them.

Ostensibly to show that he was keeping his promise, the Chief Minister approved the re-organising of Canberra’s planning whose officers he said had caused the shortage of building land. Now anyone who knows how Government works won’t need a crystal ball to know that re-organisation means more bureaucrats would be appointed but that there would be little improvement in the affordable housing situation. Both things occurred.

At the same time many people in the Canberra community who know more about planning than the Chief Minister and his planning Minister, also said the planning system was a mess but that it had been caused by the Government. Not one to lie down to accusations such as this, the Chief Minister in reply exonerated himself and his Ministers from blame by reiterating that the planners not his Government were responsible for the planning mess and thus were responsible for the lack of affordable housing. 

As income from land sales is a major source of the money the Government uses to pay for some of its promises, if land is not available for sale the Government will find itself facing not a GFC but a CFC (Canberra Financial Crisis) and in the same position as those who can’t afford to buy a house.

The effect of a CFC could be catastrophic. Not only would it hasten Canberra towards becoming the geriatric capital of the southern hemisphere it could keep it ‘going forward ‘(I seem to have heard that phrase before) to holding the title, the ‘Necropolis Capital.’          

Reading between the lines of what the Chief Minister had to say I got the feeling that although he thinks he is not responsible for the situation that does not necessarily mean he thinks the same about his Ministers. Not to make excuses for him, in part he may be right because often to counter bad publicity, it seems he found it necessary to intervene in their portfolios.

As a result, the oftener he intervened the more it appeared the Government was a one – man band (is it?). And though one – man bands can be entertaining at times, they will never replace orchestras of talented musicians just as a one-man government will never replace a government band of talented politicians, even with the best conductor in the world.

Perhaps we should start thinking of changing the Government band?   

dca@netspeed.com.au

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First posted to The Chronicle, Tuesday 18 January,2011 

For the last seven years many in the community have opined that the leadership necessary to secure the future of Canberra and its citizens, old and young, has been absent from the Legislative Assembly. That was made clear at the 2008 election when they gave neither of the major parties permission to govern the ACT in their own right. However, come October 2012 if they decide the current arrangement – a minority Labor Government subservient to the Greens – is less than satisfactory, no doubt they will change it

Voting for the next Assembly could test the nerve of voters. Will they elect more Independents and minor parties to the Assembly thus making it necessary to have an Assembly that better represents the ACT’s wide variety of political opinion? That’s the $64,000 question

If they do, this would represent a significant political change but where better for it to happen than in the electorate not only claimed as the home of cultural diversity but also the cleverest in the nation.

That the average weekly wage in Canberra is also the highest in the nation is not due to it being the cleverest city in Australia but more to the fact that it is home to the National Parliament and many National institutions that need large numbers of well-paid bureaucrats to service them. Unlike other cities in Australia, the Capital did not develop its own wealth creation industries employing thousands of people.

 That said, let me say also that as the Independent Candidates and minor party candidates other than The Greens, attempt to gain representation, they should be prepared for a long, and perhaps a nasty fight because, if successful, the major parties will have to accept a wider range of ideas, such as has happened federally, albeit the minority Labor government accepted those with ill grace.

To be successful, however, the Independents and minor parties must make the wider community aware that their interests are low on the priority scale of some current MLAs and other prospective candidates from the major parties. They might think (they would be mistaken if they do) that just because the election is still some way away, they needn’t start their election campaign until later.

Regardless of what parties currently represented in the Assembly say, their campaigns for 2012 election have been under way since the 2008 election. They have also ramped them up since the 2010 federal election.

So let me say to those Independents and minor parties who intend contesting the next election: copy them. Do not delay the start of you campaigns any longer. You had better start now if you hope to be elected and contribute to making the changes necessary for the good governance of the ACT. 

However, a word of warning! Although I hold no brief for any party or candidate let me say it makes no sense simply to target current individual Members of the current Assembly and try to get rid of them because you do not agree with a particular policy. If their performance in the current Assembly has been to the benefit of the community, it is never wise to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

From the start of your campaign(s) you should make plain your views not only as to which of the current MLAs you would like to see replaced in the Assembly but why you would like them replaced. (I will identify the ones I think worth keeping in a later column.) When quizzed by the media, you should then be prepared to stand by what you say while containing your delight that they have seen fit to quiz you.

I wish I could say otherwise, but on occasion, the intentions of the media doing the quizzing is not so much about finding out what you think but designed to make you seem inadequate.         

So, unless you have something sensible to say, a constant presence in the media is unlikely to make voters think this a sign of your political ability. More than likely it will to bring to mind the old adage: ‘empty vessels make the most sound’ and also make them vote on that basis at the next election.

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