There are two problems with the Canberra Times’ ongoing efforts to pre-empt democractic processes in their attempts to get around the moribund business of printing news on dead trees:
1) They get it wrong, all the time.
2) Their narrative robs the participants of democratic franchise
They should be judged very harshly for this.
But they’ll keep getting the [...]

Zed Seselja’s media advisor Emily Davis has announced there will be a press conference at 2pm.
(Yes exactly who is making the call is possibly significant)
Keep your eyes posted.

UPDATE: Jeremy Hanson is the leader, Alistair Coe as deputy.

It does make one wonder what Senator Humphries was playing at when he convinced the Canberra Times Alistair Coe [...]

The Canberra Times is reporting that a deal has been done to install Alistair Coe as leader of the opposition in return for his Young Liberal army of darkness backing Zed’s Senate tilt.
Zed of course has a vote in the party room today.
In 8 months time when Zed leaves the Assembly the numbers will change.
It’s [...]

Andrew Barr has announced he’s getting ready to sell off some silverware to balance his books:
The ACT Government will be commissioning a detailed review into future ownership and governance arrangements of ACTTAB.
A feasibility study will be undertaken to identify the full range of future ownership options and the issues associated with each. The various options [...]

Two moderately illuminating stories in the Canberra Times today on the Liberal Senate seat stoush.
The first is Gary Kent (former party president of the Gazza school) fulminating on all the things he coulda shoulda woulda gone and done, and still might if he had the numbers which he probably doesn’t.
This bit is worth repeating [...]

Prolific SF author Charles Stross has knocked out an interesting missive on what ails modern democracy.
It ends with this:
So the future isn’t a boot stamping on a human face, forever. It’s a person in a beige business outfit advocating beige policies that nobody wants (but nobody can quite articulate a coherent alternative to) with a [...]

Senator Gary Humphries is putting on a brave face to point out forced redundancies from the public service:
A series of leaked emails received by ACT Liberal Senator Gary Humphries has revealed that the Australian Bureau of Statistics has identified the first 49 employees that will lose their jobs under a new wave of cuts.
“Senator Lundy [...]

It was good to see the Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher at the last Tuggeranong Community Council Meeting. More than 60 people were at the meeting and asked her many questions about Tuggeranong, public transport, health, planning and development, aircraft noise and Tralee just to mention a few.
It was a very good night, spoiled only [...]

Today as I trawled through The Riot Act to pass the time and I read about Zed’s impending coup against Gaz and a religious conservative displacing a secular moderate, I came across some posts about the October 2012 ACT Election.
Reading them, I was reminded of Philip Pocock. Remember him? The qualified and registered psychologist who had interesting [...]

The Herald Sun is running Trish Crossin’s take on her political execution by Prime Minister Gillard.
There are a few remarkable things in there.
It’s bizarre the Prime Minister’s Office wouldn’t have taken the trouble to find some role somewhere for a Senator surplus to requirements.
But perhaps most ominous for Canberra is the sense that Ms [...]

The ABC reports that despite the best efforts of his friends (your correspondent included) man about town Steven Bailey is going to run for the ACT Senate for Katter’s Australian Party.
Composer and theatre director Steven Bailey, 29, has been endorsed as a candidate for the Senate.
Mr Bailey says he will be focusing on public [...]

The Canberra Times brings word of the increasing acrimony in the local Liberal Party as Sentator Humphries fights for his life and tries to rally the moderates after years of letting Zed’s conservatives take over the party.
Former Canberra Liberals president and Howard government staffer Gary Kent told Fairfax he had been threatened with expulsion from [...]

Speaker Dunne has the thrilling news that we can now petition the Legislative Assembly online!
“Petitioning parliament has long been an avenue used by citizens to have their say and it has always been a feature of the ACT Legislative Assembly,” Mrs Dunne said.
“ACT residents will now be able to add their names to petitions from [...]

Crikey have had a poke at the Gary Humphries knifing.
It’s interesting to consider that at the Parliamentary level the conservative Zed is squeezing the numbers of the moderates.
The grip of the big-C Conservatives on the federal Coalition may be about to tighten, with moderate ACT Liberal Senator Gary Humphries likely to be rolled in a [...]

While Zed gets about the business of knifing the generally well regarded Senator Humphries, and Brendan Smyth and Jeremy Hanson set to on the leadership front, there is an even grislier prospect for the party.
Zed’s replacement in Brindabella is either going to be the ancient hero of Tharwa, Val Jeffery, who surely does not have [...]

Many voters in Tuggeranong are seething, me for one.
After serving less than four months as the member for Brindabella, Zed has announced he is doing a runner and setting his sights on the Big House on the Hill.
Steve Dozpott was sent packing to Molonglo because, so we were told, Zed wanted to serve [...]

Andrew Barr has announced the winners of the 2013 Sport and Recreation Grants.
Today I joined 69 sporting organisations who will share more than $2.3 million through the 2013 Sport and Recreation Grant Program (SRGP).
The ACT Government recognises the importance of investment in sport and recreation in our community. The grants help organisations to increase participation [...]

As every true Canberran knows, the best way to improve one’s KPIs is to doctor them. Katy’s approach is to fudge the raw data, however Simon has got a new technique.
If you’ve got concerns about the proportion of clients that think the advocacy services provided by the Public Advocate of the ACT are of [...]

Word is breaking that Liberal Leader Zed Seselja has taken the easy option of knocking off sitting Senator Gary Humphries rather than taking the hard road of trying to win a new seat for his party.
We’ll let you know what this means for the Legislative Assembly when we know.

UPDATE 04/01/13 09:06: Word is that Zed [...]

I have just received the agenda for the next Tuggeranong Community Council meeting. The guest speaker will be the Chief Minister, Katy Gallagher. Perhaps she will take the time to explain why Tuggeranong is treated as the poor cousins of Canberra.
I also note that eyesore they call the Namadgi Bridge is getting a new coat [...]

The ABC brings word that Monday is the deadline for Liberal party nominations to run in this year’s federal election.
Which means Zed Seselja’s Hamlet act is drawing to a close.
Will he run at the lacklustre Gai Brodtmann in the southern electorate of Canberra?
Will he get into a preselection brawl with sitting Liberal Senator Gary Humphries?
Will [...]

Andrew Barr has announced his pleasure at the numbers for Floriade 2012:
A total of 442,243 people attended the 30-day event, an increase of 7.3% on the 2011 figure of 412,024. The event recorded its highest ever attendance for a single day as well as the highest attendance over the Labour Day long weekend, with 35,200 [...]

Chief Minister Gallagher is celebrating the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services:
The latest RoGS report shows that the ACT enjoys:
– Some of the highest NAPLAN score results for years 3, 5, 7 and 9 students in reading and numeracy, indicating a school system that is teaching the basics effectively. The ACT also has the highest [...]

Prime Minister Gillard has just taken the very unusual step of announcing the date of this year’s federal election.
It’s to be September 14 which will give our public servants something to be going on with.

Zed Seselja is asking questions about where the ACT’s money has gone with Better Place going titsup?
ACT Opposition Leader Zed Seselja has today questioned the ACT Labor Government on how much money the part government owned company ActewAGL and the government itself have spent on Canberra’s future electric car network, which is now in doubt.
“The [...]

A reader has pointed out the exciting news that retired Labor heavyweight John Hargreaves has featured in the Commonwealth Parliamentarian in which he has provided numerous bullet points on how he filled his days as Labor whip.
The four page spread starts on page 178 for those who are interested.

Just before Christmas we took notice of a strange little spat being fought out by proxy between Speaker Dunne, who wants a little church service to start the Assembly sitting year, and Chief Minister Gallagher who doesn’t want a bar of it.
The row is now running on the UK’s National Secular Society.
Ms Gallagher said on [...]

If you haven’t had a listen to Barack Obama’s second inaugural address it’s well worth a listen.
While meant for an American audience it struck me that he’s getting close to a viable political philosophy for the 21st century in stark contrast to the ever more tired nostrums of Australia’s political parties.

Government News brings word that Parliament House is trying to figure out how to be more appealing to the tourists.
Quite possibly an unintended consequence of the Museum of Australian Democracy opening is a pull on the time of the politically minded tourist.
(And the portrait gallery remains the best historical lens available in Canberra.)
Any thoughts?

The ABC’s Antony Green is having a look at the process underway to expand the Legislative Assembly:
The ACT’s original electoral system elected 17 members at large. The introduction of the Hare-Clark electoral system in the existing 17 member Assembly created the undesirable situation where the three electorates return different numbers of members. If the Assembly [...]

Overnight the Elections ACT Return of Gifts had some Christmas Cheer for the Greens to the tune of $1,250 from Duffy’s Julie Armstrong.

A regular in the Assembly building (and won’t you all be trying to figure out who?) has sent this in:
assembly photo fit
i know its only been three months, but…
On a related note we can’t help but observe the losing Green MLAs are still getting their tweets pumped onto the Green website Meredith and Amanda appear [...]