*sigh* Yes, Piers Akerman is a prick too (in my opinion)

I like Canberra that is why i live here.

what’s with everyone bagging Bruce Stadium?

I think it’s mostly criticism (and resentment) of how the development was handled, rather than the end result.

It’s difficult to consider Piers Ackerman as a respectable journalist after his appearance in a number of Kinky Freidman novels. Kinky must have seen a very different side to old mate Piers while he lived in New York.

BTW – what’s with everyone bagging Bruce Stadium? I reckon it’s one of the better venues around – sure the seating could be a bit steeper from the edge of the field to bring eveyone a bit closer, but it was originally a running track.

Good List:
Stromlo Forest Park

Just for that Stanhope’s scored my vote. Hopefully I won’t crash and need hospital attention…

Stefaniak is an authoritarian who thinks legislation and law enforcement is the way to his Catholic vision of utopia.

Beer, rugby, and going home to the missus is a fine way to live, but it’s not the only way.

Another “pratt” has jumped in on the waste of money on the Grassby statue. Liberal Immigration and Citizenship Minister, Kevin Andrews has now gone to print in today’s on-line “Australian”. Remember, this is the guy who interfered in ACT politics re euthanasia. Having him on the anti-statue side might not be particularly helpful.

Regarding Canberra being unrepresentative of the real world (my own comment)…is this a problem? I am more than happy to live in a town with better than average facilities (and income).

what’s that saying?… “play the man not the ball”

True, it was unfair to tar and feather the Olympic Soccer with the same brush as the V8s.

The futsal slab is a white elephant.

Add the Convention Centre to the list of cock-ups as well.

I used to get upset about what this tosser said/wrote, but not anymore. Canberra may not be the real world, but I reckon it’s closer to it than the Chardonnay sipping pickled world that Piers lives in. The guy is a complete pratt.

authoritarians exist at both the left and right spectrums of politics.

often they sound the same, but use different reasons to arrive at their stated aim.

i prefer a government which has sane fiscal policies and sane social policies.

generally i think australia has been served well by its governments – with a few exceptions.

i think the gravest thing we faced was the banning of the commie party referendum. fortunately it was defeated.

referendums are useful tools – ask any aborignal about 1967. imagine wher ewe woudl be today if it had been rejected ? its likely that aus and sth africa would have spent the 70’s and 80’s with enhanced cooperation…
i digress.

im opposed to the ‘ban’ mentality (except on recumbent bikes). the ‘ban’ and ‘legislate’ mentality is endemic to politicians. why ? because they think its a way to solve ‘problems’.

a major prob with act self govt is that it attracts ideologues such as stanhope to push bizarre agendas – when really, i just want the potholes fixed. follet also had the same approach.

carnell was popular in the act because she DID things.

stanhope has done SFA.

i say vote for me. bonfire for benevolent dictator.

They’re not right, they’re just not necessarily wrong. Because right-wing demagouges never really believe in anything, and they don’t ever actually offer solutions that are going to be implemented.

Just as left wing socialists, for instance, could be said to be right about Iraq because any alternatives they suggested were unlikely to be implemented.

Don’t know how Olympic football can be referred to as a white elephant — maybe you’re thinking of the ill-advised futsal slab?

as is a stopped clock twice a day.

the real trick is knowing when that is.

They’re somtimes right though JB

Good list:
al fesco cafes
more nature reserve
bruce stadium (and olympics)
V8 races
(National Museum was commonwealth)

Bad list:
green paint for grass
school closures
land prices
hospital pay parking
buses
hospital implosion
2003 fires (after the 2001 fires)
Griffith Library (with more to follow)
Grassby statue
superschools
pink bits on the Canberra Plan (remember those?)
GDE (single lane to a sad and dysfunctional spaghetti junction)

Personally whenever I find myself agreeing with Jones/Laws/Akerman I take the opportunity to spend some time re-examining my basic assumptions.

They’re mouthpieces of shameless and powerful people.

SGS seems to have a thing for very dodgy right wingers and their simple authoritarian nostrums.

Self Government has at least allowed cafes to go al fresco which a stubborn commonwealth bureaucracy had blocked for decades.

But a local council under commonwealth administration could have done that too.

Looks like I misjudged the readership, and I’m glad, because I would hate to think that many people disagree with Piers on Stanhope.

Canberra is not even remotely representative of the rest of Australia, and has a larger than average number of do-gooder, left-wing tossers who wouldn’t know the real world if it ran them over on Northbourne..

Here here.

I really don’t think independents are the answer here. Yes they help to bring accountability, but they usually have their own axe to grind on certain issues and can be quite shallow beyond this.

With a Commonwealth public sector which pays well, ACT politics will always struggle to attract decent talent. We usually get left with the party dregs.

To be fair I think Kate Karnell did have a good go at getting out there and promoting Canberra with the V8s and Olympic Soccer, even though they were white elephants.

There’s beena few extensions to nature reserves, to protect some endangered ecosystems, but then a lot of it has been cleared for housing too…

ummm, the drakeford drive duplication? /ducks

This is a serious request, can anyone name initiatives, be they material (eg buildings, developments, statues etc.) or immaterial (eg magical mystery benefits for fat muslim kids with cancer) that were actually welcomed and applauded by most people in canberra and beyond? I mean, WTF have we GAINED, how have we BENEFITTED over the past 10 years from our mighty leaders? I see nothing but stupid ideas and backwards steps.

Let me just start with some negatives:
National Museum – a joke
Bruce stadium – laughing stock

One positive I can think of is the Canberra Centre development, but thats only very recent and seems to have been built by monkeys with blue tack and sheet iron.

yeah its like all the brunswick st polo neck skivvy wearing latte sipping yuppies with their hairy armpitted lesso pinko green fellow travellers have moved here and now run the place…

…a Stefaniak government would be beyond diabolical

That’s the old ‘Liberal would be worse’ routine. But could anyone be worse than this bunch? The schools are already closed, Canberra already burned (with 4 dead), the Grassby statue will already be up, the libraries already run into the ground, sick people already will have paid to park at the hospital at 9pm, the nature reserve already bulldozed for a GDE, ‘future development’ sites likely to be already developed to fund an election budget… and don’t even get me started on house prices.

Just tell me how they could be worse. Disorganised, granted. Worse?

What did the Libs do last time? Demolished a hospital (1 dead), sold off too much old public housing stoock, tried to imitate grass with green paint, and otherwise stuffed up Bruce stadium.

Both sides have equally stuffed up health, mental health, disabiity services, crisis housing and all those other ‘soft’ issues (even if ALP spent more money to do it).

I am sure someone will add to the ‘bad’ lists for both sides (to my embarrassment, I have voted for both at various times, and I always regret it after a term or two).

whoever you vote for, you get a politician

Bring on the independents.

The secreat is to live just outside of Canberra, like me. That way I can participate in discussion, but when people bag Canberra, well, I basically don’t give a crap.

That said, Canberra is not even remotely representative of the rest of Australia, and has a larger than average number of do-gooder, left-wing tossers who wouldn’t know the real world if it ran them over on Northbourne.

Agree with everything Piers says.

This place is overloaded with left-wing ideologues. At least one thing is that them all being here means the rest of Australia doesn’t have to put up with them.

Well Sammy….. I would say he’s seeing it a lot like the rest of us are.

Plenty of material for Ackerman to work with. An article in today’s Sydney Morning Herald “Mackay family slams Grassby statue plan” is sure to make Canberra more of a laughing stock. Hargreaves, Stanhope and Corbell are all showing up as arrogant, inflexible and insensitive egomaniacs. No wonder people think we are aliens down here when we elect politicians like them (not to mention many politicians on the other side of the fence in previous years. Self government is a cross too hard to bear.

At least Piers tells it like it is

No, Piers tells it like he sees it.

At least Piers tells it like it is.
Stefaniak would at least cater to all Canberrans, not just a select few.
And don’t you have somewhere else to be Pandy.

I mean, who the hell cares about what a former Maoist turned VP of Fox News turned tabloid columnist says.

Standard Piers – good entertainment value but intellectually bereft. Ditto his appearances on ABC’s “Insiders”.

having moved here from sydney, one thing that has surprised me is how strong the canberra cringe is… how reactive and feral people are when an “outsider” knocks canberra

But wait: NSW voters keep on voting Labor! Doh!

I notice people keep voting for politicians. Idiots.

But wait: NSW voters keep on voting Labor! Doh!

I managed to endure Pier’s slurs on us Canberrans by enjoying the bashing he gave our sobbing mayor.

Piers’ peice was actually quite good in my opinion, and his discussion with Mike Jeffreys on 2CC this morning likewise…but alas I’m wasting my breath and turning myself into flamebait by defending him here.