Googong, the township that should be in Canberra. Photo: Geoff Comfort.
Canberra Liberals leader Alistair Coe is right. Googong should be ours.
Hell, why not Queanbeyan too, for that matter?
Mr Coe believes the ACT is short about $400 million because of a line on a map nobody takes any notice of.
Those 7,000 Googonians – see they don’t even call themselves New South Welshmen, and women – should be paying their rates into ACT coffers.
It would mean a bigger pie and bigger slice for everybody.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr would call it pie-in-the-sky economics but he’s just miffed that Mr Coe has stated the obvious about the border bleeding us dry.
All the marketing for Googong always says it’s only 16 km from Parliament House, most of them cross the border to work, if somebody breaks a leg it’s off to Canberra Hospital, and while schools are being built, you can bet your old school tie quite a few are doing their learning at Canberra’s finest.
Then there is Queanbeyan, even Murrumbateman, Yass and Bungendore.
They’re all sucking the juice out of the big lime green capital.
The solution is obvious.
Just as Rome pulled its satellites into orbit and absorbed them, much to the delight of citizens yearning for order and baths, Canberra should reach out to our neighbours and start applying the pressure.
Emissaries should be sent off to Sydney, or at least a Zoom meeting arranged, to open border negotiations with NSW. Gladys has got a lot on her plate at the moment so it’s the perfect time to make the approach, and Barra is on leave.
She could solve several problems at once by ceding Queanbeyan at least to the ACT, and why not throw in the rest just to sweeten the deal?
In any case, the NSW Government doesn’t care much about anyone outside of Sydney.
And the Feds? Well, Mr Coe, Alistair, says Scomo has his back on this, so moving the line a little further east and north shouldn’t be an issue.
Think of the rivers of gold flowing into the ACT Revenue Office, the rates rebates hitting your bank account, and struggle town being rebadged ‘Howard’.
Then the residents could be fondly called ‘Howard’s battlers’. In a very equitable, non-discriminatory, inclusive kind of way.
They can’t wait to be part of the most progressive patch of dirt in the country and take a celebratory spin around the rainbow roundabout.
All a bit fanciful?
Well, ask yourself this: where did the Canberra Raiders start? Queanbeyan!
Where are the best vineyards? Over there. But who drinks their wine? We do!
What will make the trip to the coast shorter? Moving the border!
Bring it in Q, and the rest. Get with the strength.
Alistair will welcome you with open arms … and a tree.
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