19 July 2008

Reasons why the ACT is better than NSW - Jon Stanhope

| johnboy
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In the first of a weekly series I shall explore the things about the ACT which a year in NSW has taught me are better here.

And the first one of them is Jon Stanhope.

No… wait… bear with me here. If you don’t actually have to live with the consequences of his Government Jon Stanhope is a lone flickering beacon of decency on the Australian political landscape.

Who else actually stands up for human rights, for freedom of speech, for double jeopardy and habeus corpus, even when the outcomes of sticking up for these principles are unsavoury?

The Times [The real one, not the Crimes] former editor Simon Jenkins once wrote the following which is my quote on Facebook:

    “Every age refights the Civil War in its own way and ours is no exception. Roundhead and Cavalier,

    Whig and Tory, Gladstone and Disraeli, Labour and Conservative, each conflict is an echo of the original.

    Every age has its own Cromwell, the man repainted, regilded, forged, twisted to suit some current purpose. The historian Isaac Foot, father of Michael, said that he judged a man by one thing, ‘On which side would he have fought at Marston Moor’, the King’s or Parliament’s.

    The pendulum of politics long ago stopped swinging from Left to Right, now being stuck on Right. But it always swings from Roundhead to Cavalier. It swings from the authority of democratic institutions, defended ceaselessly and sometimes bloodily, to the corruption of over-centralised power.”

Jon Stanhope, I have no doubt, would have stood with Parliament. And, I hope, so would I. But I can’t name another leader in this country of which I can be so sure.

I have been scathingly critical of his governance in the past, and I imagine I will be in the future.

But in a way it’s somehow heartening that Canberra has thrown up a politician of such steely principle (even if we might argue that some of his principles are poorly chosen and mis-applied), and that the voters have have rewarded him for it over the years. All that despite his many refusals to play the politician’s game.

Jon Stanhope, a better leader than what NSW has got.

(Photo courtesy of last night’s ABC news)

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Mælinar – *spoiler alert* I’ve seen S04E13 said :

I think Barr knows how to take it where it counts for the top job.

so do I. he got thrown a poisoned bone by an ex education minister and took it all on board.

Maelinar, what does the rest of your ID mean?

Stanhop Prime Minister ftw

Mælinar - *spoiler alert* I've seen S04E132:32 pm 22 Jul 08

I think Barr knows how to take it where it counts for the top job.

nicolae said :

All we got with Kate Carnell was bread and circuses. By that I mean exploding hospitals billed as public entertainment, futsall and car races (I really like cars but they are not a substitute for serious government). John Stanhope is a principled visionary compared to her. But I agree that Kate would win in the ring, gloves on or off.

and look what happened when jon came to power. no futsall, no car racing, no dragway, but some of the most hideous statues (I may not know art, but I know what I like) decorating a single lane bottleneck for gungahlin residents…

not any better off with the GDE, you know…

I am bitter about the fires, the poor consultation about the schools, the lack of parking in civic, etc, etc.

we need a new face in the top job, someone who will see the chief minister as the top job in canberra politics and treat it as such through the effective leadership that we so desperately need. Someone who will say “the buck stops with me” and own up to mistakes.

All we got with Kate Carnell was bread and circuses. By that I mean exploding hospitals billed as public entertainment, futsall and car races (I really like cars but they are not a substitute for serious government). John Stanhope is a principled visionary compared to her. But I agree that Kate would win in the ring, gloves on or off.

True there isn’t much else to choose from, but I’m willing to give someone else a go. I can’t see how we can do worse.

Stanhope is a knob. He is out of touch with the community, the power has gone to his head, and he is only just a smidge above Kate Carnell.

In fact I’d pay money to watch them both go at it in a boxing ring. My bet is Kate is more likely to be wearing the pants and would KO Stanhope!

A small point, I know, but Stanhope was not elected to impose his view on human rights, foreign policy etc.

He was elected to successfully manage a small city, a task he has failed to fulfill;

-our major hospital is the worst in the country on several benchmarks
-the GDE project has been a disaster by any standards
-our police service is under resourced, our court system a national joke
-public infrastructure is allowed to run down, yet we indulge ourselves with a state-of-the art jail, arboretum, unwanted artworks etc.
-the city is awash with ugly and ill-planned development, the will of developers seemingly of greater importance than the wishes of the public.

Elect someone else- anyone else. There must be better talent somewhere in this town.

how silly of me to forget the concentration camps in calwell.that is seriously the dumbest comment i have seen written here for a long time.

i cant help but think that maybe some people would be happier if they let go and started to move forwed.

Say that to the Holocust survivors.

Never forget what Stanhope is.

yeah its berry and pratt who get the week in the sun, to be fair though this particular trip is aimed more at berry and pratt teaching the kiribatians rather than studying themsleves. otherwise 24k for non ministers study tours seems a bit excessive.

On point; i quite like stanhope, he’s a cut above anyone else in the assembly or in other state parliaments. To be blunt i dont think we’ve had a better CM or are likely to get one in the near future.

he has consistently shown himself as ready to make hard decisons, (schools, GDE etc) even though it may cost him electorally while his habit of standing up for human rights etc make him admirable. reading through the comments i remerbered things about him which i had forgotten (saving the drowning man, posting sedition laws etc) which just highlights the mans good points.

on the fires, the scale was unforseeable and i’m satisfied that stanhope acted appropriately. given 20/20 hindsight it may be possible to fault him, but my feeling is that on the day he did as well as could be expected. the fires where 5 years ago now, i cant help but think that maybe some people would be happier if they let go and started to move forwed.

(for the record i’m tipping the assembly to remain as is, or for labor to drop one in brindebella, probably to the greens.)

I think the soon to depart Berry was the second suspect.

Loose wimin?

But seriously: Ouinlen? You been sleeping?

paull said :

I was at the torch ceremony – the one Stanhope spent a fortune on to surrounded with chinese goons direct from the chinese secret police. Yeah – human rights right. I saw him on the podium kowtowing to the chinese ambasador in a truley sickening display of lackyism.
Neville chamberlain had nothing on this guy. Munich – Peking – tis all the same. The 18 October cant come fast enough.

HA HA HA! Well, you obviously didn’t hear anything he was saying!

But mostly I’d have more respect if he actually copped it sweet on ANY issue where he was shown to have knowledge of wrong / poor decision making.

The guy shows no humility, just grumpiness. He would make a good Russian President.

I was at the torch ceremony – the one Stanhope spent a fortune on to surrounded with chinese goons direct from the chinese secret police. Yeah – human rights right. I saw him on the podium kowtowing to the chinese ambasador in a truley sickening display of lackyism.
Neville chamberlain had nothing on this guy. Munich – Peking – tis all the same. The 18 October cant come fast enough.

I have it on very good authority (from the back of an old Sizzler menu) that Cromwell banned the apple pie.

Apparently pies were far too pleasurable, and people needed to be protected from fun and pleasure for their own good. Left to their own devices they might not have realised that these things were, in fact, evil … and to be avoided at all costs.

Other evils including rugby, cricket, horse-racing, two-up, the local TAB, the local pub, meat pies, music, cosmetics, fashion, stage shows, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, democracy, and all the bits of Christmas that make little kids’ eyes shine were also forbidden; not to mention the genocide committed against the Irish people and the sending of Irish children into slavery to work and die in the sugar plantations of the West Indies. People were encouraged to dob their mates in.

Worse still, Cromwell became accustomed to the high life and didn’t even practise what he preached. I can’t honestly say I would vote for him, let alone fight for him.

He no doubt had good intentions and believed he knew what was best (a one lane GDE, a power station in suburbia, high taxes, hopeless public transport, bad roads, sham consultations) but not surprisingly his actions did not endear him to the people and he was unpopular and despised by most at the end. They did, however, get around to burying his head in 1960, I believe.

; )

Post #44 How many politicians would do this:etc
Forgive my cynicism, or not, but I suspect just about any politician who can swim a bit would have been right in. For more humanitarian reasons, I imagine just about anyone would.
I’m with Thumper here, many far braver went unnoticed and unawarded.
I suspect I might have more respect for Stanhopes good deeds, and I acknowledge there are some, if he didn’t go all chihuaha v pitbull into unwinnable battles over human rights issues, instead of sorting the grass roots human rights issues right here in Canberra, mental health, hospital waiting lists, accessible transport, et al. And the wasted $’s – a one lane GDE, crap art, Grassby statue, and so on.
But mostly I’d have more respect if he actually copped it sweet on ANY issue where he was shown to have knowledge of wrong / poor decision making.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

As for the fires – you’re like those losers still wearing their Sydney 2000 volunteer uniforms. It’s over, and you need to get over it. Here’s a picture:

you
___
it

oh, wmc, were you here, or was someone else hosing your house down in a vain attempt to save it, whilst you were on holidays?

I have now been thru 2 natural disasters. Cyclone tracey had no warning, as it was an unexpected event. Strong winds still make me nervous – to the point where I will hide under a bed, or in the bath with a mattress over me when I hear the tiles lifting.

the fires, however have a more insidious effect, I cannot handle the smell of bushfire now, nor the sound of roaring flames. if you were here then, you most probably wouldn’t have been in the line of the fire, like those of us in kambah, or my parents in rivett, who did lose their house.

it is a terrible thing to have endured, but it was made far worse by the conflicting info we received. all we needed at that time was a leader who ensured we were kept in the loop – taking over all radio channels to report what was coming. If I had had better warning, I could have helped my father save some of his possessions.

I really wish that you never get exposed to this kind of loss twice in your lifetime. or perhaps your tune will change when the memories of generations are either lost in the flames, or blown away….

all my father’s possesions, all our collective memories. gone.

how dare you call me a loser and to get over it. until you have gone through what I have endured, you cannot make that comment.

try to show some empathy for those who lost everything. we are rebuilding, but somethings cannot be replaced.

PickedANickname said :

How many politicians would do this:

On 13 January, a helicopter that had been waterbombing the fires in the forests west of Canberra crashed into Bendora Dam with one person, the pilot, injured. ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope and Chief Fire Officer Peter Lucas-Smith were reviewing the fires nearby in the Snowy Hydro Southcare helicopter. The pilot of the Southcare chopper cautiously positioned his aircraft to allow Stanhope, Lucas-Smith and a paramedic onboard to dive into the dam and rescue the injured pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Canberra_bushfires

He will always have my vote.

This is exactly why we constantly have morons in the assembly, people that pick one totally unrelated happening and vote for them because of it. Most reasonable people who are strong swimmers in the same situation would have done exactly the same thing, yes it’s a brave act, but in no way reflects his performance as a chief minister, or lack there of.

My personal opinion is that his many stuff ups far far outweigh the number of positives he has brought about. As for the main story, the Human Rights legislation is a load of garbage that sits on the legislation register to look pretty, the Government isn’t even able to measure its benefits or its “positive” impact on the community and won’t even attempt to because the job would be too large and they would find it cannot be measured. As for his attempt at same sex marriage, blind freddy could see that his legislation would be disallowed as it wouldn’t be able to overide the Commonwealth’s Marriage Act – funny that Federal Labor changed its mind too when it actually bothered to read the legislation.

I’ll be voting for anything that will change the current situation from a majority Labor rule – I’d expect a minority Liberal Goverment with cross bench help at this stage.

Deadmandrinking7:46 pm 18 Jul 08

“For all this, probably a cut above his fellow travellers.

But unelectably malodorous.” I think you’ve nailed A.C.T. politics in one. In fact, you’ve nailed almost every western political system in one.

He’s been in the wrong area of politics. State-level politics, especially at such a scale as the A.C.T. is always going to fudge you, mostly because you have to deal with a lot of crappy systems that do not work.

Stanhope did some amazing things during his political career…unfortunately, few of them related to the A.C.T. directly. I’ll always remember him for posting the sedition laws bill on his website, which was a time I was actually proud to have him as a C.M…then he got started with the statues. Goddammit Jon!

There were a few things, however, that people tend to give him shit for that I did and still do agree with. The schools, for one. We need more money on educational equipment for children, not a school every couple of bloody streets. The GDE in my opinion was fair – as it was only a small section of the O’connor scrub…eerr bushland all things considered and it’s basic common-sense in a city with a layout like Canberra to have roads going directly from one town centre to another, instead of them all just heading to the city.

On the fires, Jon did let us down. But it wasn’t only him. A lot of things went wrong that day. I was disappointed with the amount of focus that was given on attributing blame rather than trying to work out how the system could be improved so that next time, we won’t be discussing the deaths of four people.

Labor is certainly not the best, but there’s still, as usual, bugger-all in the way of alternatives.

“Who else actually stands up for human rights, for freedom of speech, for double jeopardy and habeus corpus, even when the outcomes of sticking up for these principles are unsavoury?”

How naive are you? Stanhope is simply pandering to the soggy left constituency that exists here in Canberra because… shock, horror – he’s a politician. Anywhere else and the bloke would be thumping the laura norder tub.

Woody Mann-Caruso7:16 pm 18 Jul 08

Yet we have junkies and all sorts of vagrants roaming the streets thanks to our local courts
sticking to these ‘principles’ has lead to criminals getting let off with zero punishment.

Because the legislature and the judiciary are one and the same, aren’t they. When somebody rises for sentencing, the magistrate says ‘Hold on a sec, I’ll just get Jon on the phone to see whether or not you should go away.”

As for the fires – you’re like those losers still wearing their Sydney 2000 volunteer uniforms. It’s over, and you need to get over it. Here’s a picture:

you
___
it

Jon Stanhope, a better leader than what NSW has got. JB that’s like saying that Heydrich was better than Himmler! We Canberrans can do better and deserve better

You guys like to look at the big picture, I look at the small picture. He took away my local library so I wont vote for him.

Hardly competent, Nick D. This lot’s track record indicates total incompetence about practically everything they have decided. Schools, Tharwa, power station, poo water, arboretum, etc etc. Can’t wait to ditch them.

The man’s arrogance staggers me.

His conduct in relation to the fires, and the blame minimising, Coroner bashing, guilt denying performance we have witnessed.

The Grasby statue acquiessence, the roadside artworks, the Arboretum, the quiet spend of millions of taxpayer dollars on pushbike related projects, at the same time as idealogical school and library closures, and the decimation of both physical and mental health services.

The imposition of taxes on taxes, blatant motoring and property revenue raising.

The personal denigration of anyone who speaks out against him.

For all this, probably a cut above his fellow travellers.

But unelectably malodorous.

Vandam – did you know the GDE won an award with the Master builders association. Hard to imagine.

PickedANickname said :

How many politicians would do this:

On 13 January, a helicopter that had been waterbombing the fires in the forests west of Canberra crashed into Bendora Dam with one person, the pilot, injured. ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope and Chief Fire Officer Peter Lucas-Smith were reviewing the fires nearby in the Snowy Hydro Southcare helicopter. The pilot of the Southcare chopper cautiously positioned his aircraft to allow Stanhope, Lucas-Smith and a paramedic onboard to dive into the dam and rescue the injured pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Canberra_bushfires

He will always have my vote.

ok, he saved a pilot, before the fires. could have saved 4 people more if he had let the public know WTF was going on, prior to the fires hitting. We have an emergency broadcast system, it should have been used and he should have advised us to stay if we thought we could defend the house, if not, time to go. (and have a backup plan that allowed for safe, calm evac for the ones who had stayed to defend their homes.

It is only a fluke that more people weren’t killed.

to then sue the coroner after the finger of blame was pointed squarely at him is making a mockery of his good deed.

time to go, jon….

and I haven’t even mentioned….

Where is my dragway???

Pandy said :

I would rather get behind Barr.

Are you sure about that? 🙂

The arrogant scuplture king of Canberra? You got to be joking! I am voting against Labor becasue of him. I would rather get behind Barr.

Given that the quality of ACT politicans tends to be very low, Stanhope is pretty good. He and his government are hardly perfect, but they’re competant and not corrupt, which is more than can be said for a lot of local councils in Australia.

PickedANickname5:07 pm 18 Jul 08

How many politicians would do this:

On 13 January, a helicopter that had been waterbombing the fires in the forests west of Canberra crashed into Bendora Dam with one person, the pilot, injured. ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope and Chief Fire Officer Peter Lucas-Smith were reviewing the fires nearby in the Snowy Hydro Southcare helicopter. The pilot of the Southcare chopper cautiously positioned his aircraft to allow Stanhope, Lucas-Smith and a paramedic onboard to dive into the dam and rescue the injured pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Canberra_bushfires

He will always have my vote.

Absent Diane4:55 pm 18 Jul 08

I don’t know why Headbonius, i just don’t know. Apologies my sage like abilities can’t help you on this quest, however i feel it is a road that you must travel on your own. Maybe oneday you will find out the secret as to why it didn’t suprise you. I truly hope you do. Best wishes.

Absent Diane, why doesn’t that surprise me?

Sure he sticks up for human rights BUT………

Lets think about the following:

*Stupid amount of money on silly art around Canberra.
*The Gungahlin Drive Extension.
*The numerous Parking issues around the city.
*The state of the health and mental health system.
*Higher taxes.
*new taxes.
*A new arbotorem, when we already have a botanical gardens……Whats with that????
*Canberra Bush fires
*the Power station.
*The revolve business

The list goes on and on and on.

I know who i won’t be voting for!

AD – Iemma has shifty eyes. Stanhopes just have that continual glazed look of not actually understanding what is being talked about.

Absent Diane3:07 pm 18 Jul 08

there was something that bugged me about iemma ever since he took over from carr. he just wreaked of incompetence. Personally I don’t think stanhope has been that bad at all.

Loose Brown said :

PeterH – it was Kate Carnell that was involved with the ‘painting the stadium grass green’ incident.

i know.

but is seems to me that jon is engaging in the same slippery slope – how long till he has a major fubar that we all get to compare him with kate, forever?

PeterH – it was Kate Carnell that was involved with the ‘painting the stadium grass green’ incident.

Ralph – the 2007-08 budget was the sixth consecutive budget surplus for the ACT.

Zeez now I am thinking of Kate Carnell – now THERE was incompetence.

I’d suggest his arrogance, stubbornness, sometimes childish petulence, and tendency to become aggressively angry at anyone who dares question him or his views, are his major downfalls.

As well as his propensity to play the man rather than the ball.

His strengths are as JB suggested.

And, in comparison to Iemma, he is pretty good. Imagine if Ieamma was our CM, that is not a pretty thought.

we could look at the comparisons that can be made between the two….

both have a below par health minister….

1. As a man, he has certain good qualities.

2. As a Chief Minister, he’s dreadful.

subtle p.s. – comparing Stanhope to Iemma is like comparing a multi billion dollar enterprise to a few million dollar one. Not in the same league.

Ralph said :

Managed to send the budget into deficit, during Australia’s biggest ever property boom.

Gob smacking incompetence.

and the final act of blatant stupidity:

denying knowledge of the power plant site, only to be caught out. He should have just stuck to painting the stadium grass green.

Managed to send the budget into deficit, during Australia’s biggest ever property boom.

Gob smacking incompetence.

i think your beer analogy is perfect johnboy.

if you compare to other state leaders – stanhope is great, seriously. and even without the comparison, i still think he’s great.

the fires were a pretty unique and not a reasonably foreseeable event – it’s not like he lit the match people.

What would the bastion of human rights say about my ‘human right’ to expect that a known criminal be removed from dealing with the public so they do not kill/maim/break into or otherwise impede my happy little existence ?

At least he’s on the right track by building a nice big prison. I think they could make further budget savings on the ‘prisoner comfort’ line, but on the right track nonetheless.

smiling politely12:41 pm 18 Jul 08

Yeah I can see where you’re coming from with this Johnboy, though the bushfire issue has left a bit of a credibility gap for him across the community (regardless of whether or not it’s deserved). Thanks also to you and Thumper for the brief history lesson.

peterh said :

the fires – not letting us know and giving us a chance to plan our evacuation.
the fires – denying knowledge of the impact to canberra
the fires – rejecting the coroner’s report, then taking her to court over it
the fires – claiming that it wasn’t his responsibility

if it isn’t the chief minister’s responsibility, who does the buck stop with??

Agree the buck must stop somewhere and ultimately with him, but the man is a politician, not a firefighter or policeman, he was badly let down by the bureaucracy in JACS I think.

I almost suspect he had some sort of breakdown after the 2003 fires – he certainly made some very odd decisions afterwards.

I don’t think appropriate sentencing and mandatory sentencing are as linked as you suggest. Basically you want legislative over-ride of the judiciary, and if we were to do that something more subtle might be a better solution.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy12:20 pm 18 Jul 08

Civil liberties and rights relate fairly heavily to the idea of mandatory sentencing, wouldn’t you say? Of course, we don’t have mandatory sentencing at the moment, but without the civil liberties bullshitola maybe we could, and thus direct our ineffective court system a little better. If someone has been busted dealing drugs or stealing three times, then I think a time out to think about what they did is entirely appropriate.

For the benefit of the Lock’em’up crowd (a view I have some sympathy for) a belief in human rights an civil liberties has nothing to do with inadequate sentencing and not enforcing bail conditions.

Holden Caulfield12:11 pm 18 Jul 08

Useless trivia … I saw Jon Stanhope going for a jog on Tuesday afternoon. I was driving under Kings Ave bridge around the corner towards the gallery and I saw this lone jogger approach the road, a notorious intersection for stubborn joggers and motorists alike. I did a bit of a ZOMG!!!~111!!! when I saw it was Stanhope.

At least he waited for me to drive past.

So, he may have principles, but he doesn’t have a death wish.

You heard it here first!

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy12:07 pm 18 Jul 08

I’m with Ralph on this – sticking to these ‘principles’ has lead to criminals getting let off with zero punishment. Law and order is NOT an ACT strong point.

johnboy said :

LB, the comparison is not with Cromwell, but with all the decent citizens of the land who risked execution and the confiscation of their property to hold a pike and stand in a line for the what is now the basis of our democracy.

From underpraise to overpraise in two neat moves. Nice!

LB, the comparison is not with Cromwell, but with all the decent citizens of the land who risked execution and the confiscation of their property to hold a pike and stand in a line for the what is now the basis of our democracy.

Aurelius, you’ll just have to keep checking in for more things that are better about Canberra.

I agree, there have been prior instances of chief ministers who went for less.

and others who scraped by the particular issue (they thought) until election time. Then the canberrans spoke with their votes.

Johnboy,
As someone who recently returned to the ACT from 4 years in Queensland exile, I’m very curious to know what your series on ‘why living in Canberra is better than NSW’ will expose.
In Qld, the most disappointing aspects were the food (much less narrow choice than here) and the small-mindedness of the locals (and even the emigrated locals). NSW isn’t anywhere near as bad as the *real* outskirts of the country, surely?

Ralph said :

However the fact that he is still the Chief Minister says more about the progressive, educated and mature attitude of Canberrans than anything Stanhope has done.

Get your hand off it. The olde chestnut of ‘to be of the left is to be intelligent’. Back to the 1960s for you. Halfwit.

I’m sure the occasional right-leaning tosser has a couple of neurons to rub together – for example you could spell ‘chestnut’.

I wouldn’t have thought one would want to be compared to Cromwell, even if you did fight on the side of parliament.

I deeply respect Jon Stanhope for his stance on human rights, ‘anti terrorism laws’, habeus corpus, and all those other good legal protections that it seems the majority no longer care for or don’t understand the importance of.

It’s just everything else that has been a disaster. It does make him better than Iemma, but that really isn’t saying much at all.

Oh I think he should have resigned over that.

I’m not saying the man is without flaw.

Beer for instance gives me nasty headaches and makes me say foolish things. Sometimes (very rarely) it doubles me over the toilet turning myself inside out.

I still prefer beer to many of the alternatives.

Jon may have done some good things, but what still sticks for me includes:

the fires – not letting us know and giving us a chance to plan our evacuation.
the fires – denying knowledge of the impact to canberra
the fires – rejecting the coroner’s report, then taking her to court over it
the fires – claiming that it wasn’t his responsibility

if it isn’t the chief minister’s responsibility, who does the buck stop with??

Thumper –> The thing was he won. Almost always the executive power triumphs. And Cromwell is a trivially minor part of this argument.

But if not for Cromwell’s example of beating the crown, and hacking off the King’s head (importantly after a trial), I personally believe the world would be a much, much poorer place.

Or as Thomas Paine said it “The fate of Charles I did not make kings more just, only more subtle”. Which is still an improvement at a time when Government are trying to make it a crime to annoy Catholics.

Let’s move on shall we?

I do read a little more widely than just Canberra media circles from time to time.

I refer to much more eminent Simon Jenkins

You’re quoting Simon Jenkins?
As in the guy who did sports news coverage for 104.7 on Sundays, and then did reporterless pieces for Stateline?

Unless there are now two of them in Canberra’s media circles.

However the fact that he is still the Chief Minister says more about the progressive, educated and mature attitude of Canberrans than anything Stanhope has done.

Get your hand off it. The olde chestnut of ‘to be of the left is to be intelligent’. Back to the 1960s for you. Halfwit.

Cromwell one must remember, was an arrogant, driven, puritan who in the end cared little for the parliamnentary process and in reality became a feared dictator.

Don’t let the man’s declining years be a measure of what he achieved.

I agree with the sentiment above. A classic example of Stanhope standing up for human rights, freedom of speech, etc was his address to the people (and masses of Chinese students) at the Torch relay, when he said that we do not muzzle dissent – even if it embarrasses us. And he was right, the only embarrassing thing about that day was the rabid Chinese flag-wielding rent a crowd.

And of course, his support for gay and lesbians – a good example of supporting human rights, even when it could have made him vulnerable.

However the fact that he is still the Chief Minister says more about the progressive, educated and mature attitude of Canberrans than anything Stanhope has done.

Ralph said :

Things are dire in this country when Stanhope is being held up as some sort of posterboy JB.

Agreed!

Things are dire in this country when Stanhope is being held up as some sort of posterboy JB.

Who else actually stands up for human rights, for freedom of speech, for double jeopardy and habeus corpus, even when the outcomes of sticking up for these principles are unsavoury?

Yet we have junkies and all sorts of vagrants roaming the streets thanks to our local courts. How about sticking to roads and rubbish collections?

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