I have been watching with amusement the first weeks of the new federal (autocorrect from feral) parliament. I’ve got to say I still don’t get it. The Coalition seems to be wandering around all hairy chested saying things like: ‘We are the Government’, ‘The people have given us a clear majority’, ‘We have a mandate’. Seems a little arrogant to me – especially since they just lost three votes in the House of Representatives – first time a Government has lost a vote in the House in 50 years. So as the then editor of Le Figaro, Alphonse Karr, once famously said: ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same’. Pity, as there seems to be an opportunity to reach across the aisle and work with the opposition to implement some major, economy shifting, legislation. But this could possibly be a step too far for both major parties. Having been a political media adviser for ten years from the mid-1990s, I basically can’t stand watching politicians on the news. Their lines are scripted and crafted to a point where, even if they sound stupid and look silly, they still parrot them out. Most of the time they give me that dull heavy feeling at the front of my brain that is brought on from accidently watching Neighbours … which brings me to the ACT Election to be held on Saturday, October 15. Never has there been a bigger choice for Canberrans to make about our future. On the one hand, The Labor Party and The Greens are promising billions of dollars of light rail infrastructure that will drive investment and business growth for the next 50 years and on the other side, the Liberal Party, are promising more buses … god bless their cotton socks! Yes, folks, this is what the election is going to come down to: a vote on light rail. Now one would think Canberran’s, being the best paid and most highly educated mob in the country would go for the infrastructure … but hey, Donald Trump! Which brings me to Spring in the Capital. Not, in my humble opinion, the Territories best season, but a step in the right direction towards Autumn.
Tim Benson, Publisher
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