Is the ACT Parliamentary Agreement between the Greens and Labor in trouble? Photo: Michelle Kroll.
There’s a lot of grey murky stuff in this week’s episode of The Hoot podcast, from how you define corruption to when a car park isn’t a car park.
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But Genevieve Jacobs and David Murtagh start with the scandal that’s rocked Canberra politics over the past week. While we don’t know (and can’t speculate on) former MLA Johnathan Davis’s actions until there’s more evidence, the tensions between Labor and the Greens were fairly clear.
It’s always tricky to govern in coalition, but Labor is pretty much stuck with it in the ACT. So who runs the show? And who is seeking to leverage the current imbroglio for their own political gain?
There’s an equal lack of clarity around what constitutes corruption these days. Straight cash bribes are fairly rare (that we know about, at least), but where do wining and dining and lovely friendly relationships between people who used to work together come in?
The question’s been asked around Communications Minister Michelle Rowlands’ relationship with the gambling industry, which she regulates, but applies equally to many other lobbyists on the hill, inside and outside business.
And as it turns out there’s nothing particularly murky about the Brindabella Christian College car park, at least according to ACAT, which ruled this week that the bitumen strip next to the school’s Lyneham campus was in breach of the local zoning and of the Territory sublease and had been built not only without permission but also without submitting an application to develop it for that purpose.
So what happens next? While we’re at it, how did the issue get this far before being ‘resolved’? And is this where the matter ends?
Listen through your favourite pod provider, comment and share. Hoot, hoot!
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