The snark is on!
The Australian is now returning serve to the Canberra Times as the gay marriage cum self-determination debate hots up.
(We note other media thought the Legislative Assembly wasting Tuesday morning on a toothless motion was significant)
The Australian would like to keep us as we are:
As editor-at-large Paul Kelly wrote yesterday: “The ACT is not a state. It is the creation of the national government and parliament and its reason for existence is to provide the seat of national administration . . . The ACT has no claim to statehood. It never will be a state. Its constitutionally inferior status is enshrined for good reason.” Kelly pointed out that while ACT citizens were entitled to the same political rights as any other citizens, the territories were restricted in their legislative powers. In short, the ACT must answer to the government and parliament that set it up.
But they really go for the Crimes hard with the closer:
Last week, the ACT’s local paper, The Canberra Times, editorialised against this newspaper’s stand. It claimed we saw Canberrans as “imbeciles; too prone to dangerous ideas to be allowed to govern (their) own affairs.” We accord the Times the right to hold its own, albeit fanciful, views, but we’re not accepting its flippant disregard for accuracy. Far from suggesting its citizens be “muzzled”, we belled the cat — stating that the veto debate was a stalking horse for gay marriage and arguing Canberra should not cede power to the territories. Unlike Senator Brown, we believe this is the only constitutionally consistent position it is possible to take.
The dance of the dinosaurs.