Page 2187 - Week 06 - Thursday, 26 June 2008

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Various advertising jingles feature, but some of the more obscure, and particularly Canberra noises, include: the sound of a penny dropping when an unpopular political leader realises the Newspoll results aren’t going to get any better; the sound collective ambition makes when political rivals realise the leadership prize might finally be within their reach; the mad scrambling sound as said rivals fight for the prize, including the squawking noises the rivals make as they phone around canvassing support; and the final noise of irrelevance a former leader makes as he sinks into oblivion.

One from the “It Made Sense at the Time” basket: residents in Canberra’s inner south were left in the dark by the Great Street Lamp Swap, which is ACT Planning’s latest bright idea to move heritage light poles from Narrabundah to Kingston’s Kennedy Street. Weird.

Friday

“Dear diary, nothing works any more!

“I consulted my magic book for a spell to cast a plague of boils onto the Opposition and The Canberra Times. I went to enormous trouble—had to find where Zed lived so I could pinch a lock of his hair.

“But during the incantation ‘Canberra wankers’ must have come out sounding like ‘Canberra Raiders’, and look what’s happened!

“Had to then grovel to Katy for help reversing the spell. All very embarrassing. Will face vote of no confidence next Wednesday. Sharpening up wand in preparation.

“Belinda has been a great help, using the down time she’s been having this week researching new and unusual spells that we’re sure Zed and his lot won’t have an answer for.”

Gas-fired power station

MR PRATT (Brindabella) (11:41): I stand here today to congratulate the community group that rallied outside the Assembly yesterday—the residents of the northern Tuggeranong valley and the southern Woden valley together. They commenced that rally at about 12 o’clock. That rally consisted of residents from Gilmore to Isaacs and Farrer, a cross-section of that particular organisation, and their residential associate; of course the majority were from Macarthur. The opposition congratulates them on being so well organised and turning out to effectively voice their concerns.

The depth of their feelings as demonstrated at the rally yesterday really reflects the righteousness of their cause. Of course, what is mainly driving that concern is that they feel well and truly dudded by a lack of transparency and a lack of prior community consultation. As we have seen, the government, its agencies and its associates have been working quietly on this particular plan—initially the 210-megawatt power station plan—and God knows how big that was ever going to grow to, now that we know that the operational user requirement for that project or that series of projects amounts to about 500 megawatts.


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