There are lots of cafés around the place that have a cool bowl of water sitting in the shade to help our canine friends cope with summer, but how many have a separate menu for doggies?
DAVID TURNBULL knows of one.
Bittersweet café in Green Square at Kingston would have to be the most dog-friendly café in Canberra.
There are lots of cafés around the ACT that have a nice, cool bowl of water sitting in the shade to help our canine friends cope with the soaring temperatures through summer, but how many have a separate menu for doggies?
Out the front at Bittersweet, you’ll see two boards – one with the menu for humans, and a second for dogs.
And what does it offer? Puppachino (lactose free milk), dairy free and gluten-free Doglato, kangaroo jerky and doggie muesli bars.
Inside there’s an honour roll that we should really call a “rogue’s gallery” of photos of Bittersweet’s canine customers.
Bittersweet’s owner Nabin KC is an unapologetic dog lover.
“When you have a dog, they become a part of your family,” he says.
Growing up in Katmandu in Nepal, Nabin had a labrador named Moli.
“I always felt really close to Moli…
INDEX
Arts & Entertainment 27-30
Crossword 31
Dining & Wine 29
Gardening 26
Letters 14-15
News 3-15
Politics 4, 6, 10
Streaming 30
Sudoku 31
and now… I see a bit of her in all the dogs that come in here”.
Nabin came to Australia in 2015 to study accountancy.
Raised in a poor family in Katmandu, he only had the opportunity to study in Australia because his grandmother mortgaged her house to raise the funds.
“I promised her I would pay her back” he says, “and I did.
“Originally, the plan was I would study and return to Nepal, but I fell in love with the lifestyle here, the freedom and I wanted to stay.
“Once I got my diploma, I decided to work to pay my grandma back.
“Still studying, I took on jobs as a labourer, a cleaner, a kitchenhand, removalist… you name it, I did it. I worked and worked and worked.”
By 2021 Nabin had grown tired of the pressure of life in Sydney and moved to Canberra to be near some cousins who’d moved here.
“I just loved Canberra from my first visit,” he says. “I got a job in a café at the airport, then became the chef at Bittersweet.”
And now he owns the place.
Nabin likes preparing good food,
Cover: A glass-plate image from Fit to Print: Defining Moments from the Fairfax Photo Archive. Story Page 8.
Cafe owner Nabin KC… “Still studying, I took on jobs as a labourer, a cleaner, a kitchenhand, removalist… you name it, I did it. I worked and worked and worked.”
but he prefers to have contact with people.
With a welcoming smile, and happy eyes, he is a natural in hospitality.
“I like engaging with people, hearing what they’ve been up to, sharing a joke. It’s just how I am,” he says.
And the dog thing?
“It’s simple. I love dogs. That’s all there is to it,” he says.
“It’s funny, I might not remember
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every customer’s name, but I remember their dogs, and I remember the customers from their dogs.”
Inside Bittersweet the “rogue’s gallery” is adorned with star lights. The gallery grew so fast, Nabin soon ran out of space, and had to make cards
instead. This all happened without advertising or promotion, just from word of mouth.
And the people appreciate good food, good coffee and a genuine smile when they see one. The dogs reckon it’s alright, too!
Brace for the ugly face of hard, anti-social politics
Twenty-twenty-five is already turning out to be an interesting year, and the campaign itself hasn’t even kicked off yet.
Yet one figure dominates above all others, regardless of your postcode, and that is Donald Trump, 47th President of the United States of America.
There is only one world leader who has the ability to impact domestic politics in any nation on earth, and that is the US President. So here are some of the bigger ways I see that influence playing out here.
Noise, narrative and news
Trump’s successful election strategy was simple. Create more noise than your opponent every day. Control the noise, and you control the campaign narrative and direction. Then conversations every day are about you and not about anyone else.
Opponents have little time to develop consistency in comms and instead are in a constant state of unease and having to respond to whatever it is you have talked about, which is usually controversial somehow, so it acts as a nice distractor from your key weakness if in opposition: a lack of depth on policy.
Opponents are usually portrayed as weak and disorganised, which blunts
Cartoon: Paul Dorin.
their attempts at momentum building.
For many reasons this strategy is harder to do here, but not impossible.
Dutton’s imitation of it has been more strategic and effective, as he’s gaining momentum in key markets, such as Victoria, which are required to win office.
Labor has long run a variation of this as well, although theirs is based on the daily announcement, as we saw Andrew Barr and his team do in election 2024, and now Albanese is doing the same in 2025.
With the emphasis on policy, though, it can lack the power of a charismatic or divisive figure to get the same traction as what a Trump may get. You can be the judge of the virtues of that.
Next is how news works in 2025. Rapidly disappearing are traditional and heritage outlets, replaced by vloggers, bloggers, podcasters and influencers. They are more likely to be partisan and less interested in the balance.
This is happening here now, but
The closeness of the race means that anti-social politics will raise its ugly head in the months ahead, likely through some ugly content (even AI) appearing in your socials one day soon.
slowly, as no single media personality has Joe Rogan-like power in Australia – yet! And some of the influencers are stuck on the sandy bum content model for now. This may yet be the year that changes as some, such as OzzyManReviews (6.14 million subscribers on YouTube), made forays into opinions during the Voice. Dutton has tried the podcast by doing an interesting hour-long piece with Sam Fricker (5.68 million subscribers on YouTube).
More interesting is how the Australian Electoral Commission may define this content. Is it personal, and therefore not subject to authorisation requirements, or party political?
Hmmm…
Anti-social politics
Once upon a time, politicians may have disliked each other on policy, but rarely personally. There was respect, as seen in Christmas wishes or condolence motions for past greats. The Trump model eschews that somewhat.
Time to get the sledgehammer and blow torch out for those true believers from the other side. This is something I’ve noticed a lot in recent dealings with (some) politicians from all sides. The tone has changed. Either you are one of the promised or just filth from the other side.
Tariffs are a form of this, rewarding the domestic market for loyalty, not caring about the externals because they don’t vote for you. They should be so grateful for getting even second-hand subs for new prices.
It’s hard, anti-social politics that turns many of us off politics. For some in politics, this is fine as it makes it even harder to get engagement, and influence, on messages. It favours the dominant player of the noise game.
The Greens have tried this here, what Adam Bandt has called combative politics, but it hasn’t had the same impact. Again, Australia is not the US. What may work there, may not here. Even locally in the ACT the Liberals tried a bit of this in campaign 2024, but without the same effectiveness as Trump had.
The mood has undoubtedly changed now. The closeness of the
race means that anti-social politics will raise its ugly head in the months ahead, likely through some ugly content (even AI) appearing in your socials one day soon. Urgh.
Issues not platforms
Trump was big on issues, less so the big platform as parties had in days gone by. Labor used to have manifestos and policy docs so big they handed out USBs to the media for ease. Gone.
Now it’s the Issue of the Week. Short, reactive politics to match how we digest much of our content now. In short form. TLDR on this: move fast or be moved because you are last. Depth has been replaced by speed and being first. Details follow eventually. If at all.
Is there more? Oh, yes, there is, but eventually.
Dr Andrew Hughes is a lecturer in marketing with the Research School of Management at ANU where he spe cialises in political marketing and advertising.
POLITICS / groundhog hospital spin
Excuse after excuse but hospital misery remains
Three months after the October 2020 election plans were being made to fix the struggling Canberra public hospital system.
Announcements were made by Health Minister Rachel StephenSmith, about how waiting times in the Emergency Departments, for example, would be brought to Australian standards within nine months.
It was a well-rehearsed response. Groundhog Day. Three months after the 2024 election the same minister has announced a new fix – an injection of $227.3million into the system “to meet demand”.
Such an injection is certainly welcome and will, hopefully make a significant difference. Or will it be another Groundhog Day?
Despite the spin, the Canberra Hospital system languishes amongst the lowest on national performance targets. Will it be the same story in nine months?
Surely, it is time for proper examination by an independent body of what can be done to fix the Canberra public hospital system. Leaving it to Rachel Stephen-Smith has not worked.
In response to a question in the ACT Legislative Assembly in 2021, the minister stated: “I have been having a lot of conversations with Canberra Health Services, as I have talked
about in this place many times over the last 18 months”.
Her attempts to lift the standard of the hospital system to be at least on a par with hospitals across Australia proved futile.
Excuse after excuse and reassurance after reassurance – but the issues remain.
The excuse this time is that the system was taken by surprise with an 85,000 increase in patient visits in the latter half of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023. Spin!
The vast bulk of the increase is 67,000 additional attendances at the four Walk-in-Centres. These were designed to reduce pressure on hospitals. However, there were 6000 more emergency department visits and 6000 more overnight stays.
Surely, it is time for proper examination by an independent body of what can be done to fix the Canberra public hospital system. Leaving it to Rachel Stephen-Smith has not worked.
The excuse was that “we didn’t know whether that (patient visits) was going to plateau or whether that growth was going to continue to increase. And, in fact... we have seen that growth continue”. For some reason it was “not what we were projecting was going to happen, but it also isn’t out of the ballpark of what other jurisdictions have.” Spin!
The current announcement is in marked contrast to the one in early December last year when the minister was celebrating big improvements in Emergency Departments based on AIHW figures for 2023-24. Perhaps those poor projections entwined with Labor’s election spin?
There is a double-bladed sword. Savings are going to have to be made in health. An injection on one hand and a reduction starting with $27 million. Orwellian “Newspeak”! The argument, inter alia, is that savings will be made by cutting expensive
“agency staff” and employing new graduates and recruiting nationally and internationally.
Stephen-Smith argues increased capacity and recruitment will mean these savings measures would not impact services. This is not the first time for this sort of spin. Just one example includes bringing Calvary Public Hospital into the hands of Canberra Health Services.
In 2021 the minister argued that the problems were being addressed.
“We have taken a very wholeof-hospital and whole-of-system approach to this,” she said.
“We have focused, within the rest of the hospital, outside the emergency department, on ensuring that people can be discharged in a timely way”.
She told the Assembly the solution was “the red-to-green strategy (that) identifies barriers to discharge and gets patients discharged from the hospital in a timely way, to free up those beds in the rest of the hospital for the emergency department, to address what is commonly known as bed block”.
This followed the comment by Jon Stanhope as far back as January 2020 when he and Khalid Ahmed asserted
in CityNews: “There is simply no evidence, that we could find, to support the minister’s assertions that the poor performance of our public hospitals is related to complexity or an unexpected and unplanned for surge in demand”.
But the same explanation is out there this month. Groundhog Day!
The federal government has provided some good news in health investment for the coming financial year. On top of the ACT’s $227.3million for this year, there will be a $50million injection into our public hospitals for 2025-26.
Rather than waiting for another Groundhog Day announcement – the minister should seek some help and maybe announce a Royal Commission to examine what has been going wrong and what should be done about it.
Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an in dependent minister for health. He has been a political columnist with “CityNews” since 2006.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith… should seek some help and maybe announce a Royal Commission into health.
NEWS / George Gershwin
Bert’s just crazy for Gershwin music, by George
By Len Power
After 70 years of avid collecting, Canberran Bert Whelan has donated his vast collection of George Gershwin’s music and memorabilia to the ANU School of Music.
“It all started when I was 12 years old and listening to a favourite evening radio program on Melbourne’s 3AW”, said Whelan. “They played Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and I was hooked for life”.
That electrifying first experience led to a lifetime of collecting recordings, sheet music and memorabilia related to George Gershwin.
Gershwin was born in New York in 1898, the second of four children from a close-knit immigrant family. He began his musical career as a song-plugger on Tin Pan Alley, but was soon writing his own pieces. He died in Los Angeles in 1937 at the age of 38.
As Whelan’s collection of Gershwin sheet music grew, he wrote to George’s lyric-writing brother, Ira Gershwin, in Los Angeles. Ira kindly smoothed the path for him to obtain copies of sheet music from the Library of Congress in Washington DC that were missing from Whelan’s growing collection.
He also began corresponding with entertainer Michael Feinstein, who was Ira’s discographer at the time.
Feinstein visited Whelan’s home in Sydney in the early 1970s to view and obtain copies of items from his collection. They maintain a regular correspondence, sharing Gershwinrelated material.
Over the years, Whelan collected the sheet music of as many published Gershwin songs as he could, discovering some sheet music at Her Majesty’s
Theatre in Melbourne.
He also contacted the Sydney office of JC Williamson’s, the company that dominated Australian commercial theatre in the 20th century. They allowed him access to their music collection in Sydney, but he was not allowed to remove anything from the building, so he laboriously copied the sheet music out by hand for the Gershwin songs missing from his collection.
Whelan’s donation to the School of
he worked his way up to becoming the Victorian manager for Festival Records. Moving to Sydney in 1969, he worked for several record companies including EMI. He was working for Record Clubs of Australia when he retired at age 64 and moved to Canberra in 2000 to be close to family and grandchildren.
Local community radio station, Artsound FM, has been the beneficiary of his music knowledge and vast recorded music collection with the programs, The Gershwin Collection, Light Orchestral Hour, Music from the Movies, I Love a Piano, The Great Songwriters, and The Magic of Music.
At 90 years of age, he continues to be actively involved with the station’s program producers, providing recorded music and ideas for new programs.
Head of the ANU School of Music
Music includes his collection of sheet music of every published song by George Gershwin, as well as the sheet music of 50 unpublished songs, copies of his correspondence with both Ira Gershwin and Michael Feinstein, recordings of Gershwin’s music and a large amount of Gershwin memorabilia, including books and DVD copies of films that contain Gershwin music.
Whelan’s love of music led to a career in the recorded music industry.
Starting at Allan’s in Melbourne,
Adrian Walter describes Whelan as “very passionate” about Gershwin, adding that he had met and had several engaging meetings with him last year where he began to give him the inside info on the collection, now housed on the 6th floor of the School of Music.
And does Whelan have a favourite Gershwin tune? He replied without hesitation, Feeling Sentimental, a rarely heard tune that was cut from the 1929 musical, Showgirl, before the show opened on Broadway.
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Canberran Bert Whelan… “When I was 12 years old and listening to Melbourne’s 3AW, they played Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and I was hooked for life.”
Photo: Peter Hislop
American composer George Gershwin… died in Los Angeles in 1937 at the age of 38.
A glass-plate glimpse of photographic history
COVER STORY
By Helen Musa
One of the greatest pleasures of being a newspaper journalist is to work alongside press photographers – quick-minded and empathetic.
Few in this country are as famous as Mike Bowers, host of the Talking Pictures segment on ABC TV’s Insiders, a veteran of 13 federal election campaigns and world conflicts, and the author in 2008 of Century of Pictures: 100 Years of Herald Photography.
Now Bowers is curating an exhibition of Fairfax Photo Archive images at the National Library of Australia for which he has been trawling through many thousands of images of glass-plate negatives now digitised by the library, so there’s plenty to talk about when we sit down to discuss his approach.
Based on the collection of glass plates, which resided in a Fairfax warehouse in Alexandria in Sydney when he researched his earlier book, the exhibition effectively traces the birth of Australian picture journalism.
To Bowers, the almost sensual quality of the glass-plate negatives was a source of pleasure –the imperfections are all still there and will be on display in the coming exhibition, along with the China-pencil markings on the photographs.
Certainly not a photography snob, Bowers is quick to praise the amateur snaps by Aussie
servicemen in both world wars and also notes the influence of art photographers such as Harold Cazneaux, who pretty well set the gold standard in composition.
He totally rejects the idea that good news photography is a matter of luck.
“You’ve got to be there with your camera, with tight settings… to me that’s not luck, that involves training skills – you have to have the instinct and the drive to find the pictures and to make them your own,” he says.
This exhibition is based purely on the glassnegative era. His research has shown that most photographers went through about 12 glass plates in a day, meaning that with an average of three to four jobs, they’d be taking just three or four frames, unthinkable to a present day photographer snapping away on a digital device.
“You had to be very judicious,” Bowers says.
He’s been looking back at the history of photography and, given that the Fairfax collection starts in 1890 when half-tone reproductions became possible, it was the weekly Sydney Mail that ran the best pictures, sourcing their pioneer photographers from studios used to doing portraits.
George Bell, who worked first at the Mail and then at the SMH, is usually considered to be at the forefront, but also prominent in the show is Englishman Herbert Henry Fishwick, another SMH recruit.
The early snappers may have come from studios where the settings were static, but they were quick learners and by the 1920s and 1930s, Bowers tells me, their pics became more like photos today, especially to cover big news stories, as when US president Teddy Roosevelt’s Great White Fleet arrived in 1908 and when the Sydney Harbour Bridge was being built.
Unsurprisingly, Bowers has lots of yarns to tell about photographers and journalists we know and tells me that his self-description as “photographer at large” came after he saw David Marr describe himself as writer at large.
Also, we agree, if a journo really wants to insult a news photographer they’ll call him or
her “my photographer”.
We pause to reflect on some of the crises that Bowers has covered in his career – in Kosovo, Cambodia, Bougainville, the Middle East and Aceh after the tsunami, where he got one of his own lucky photos when he snapped a soldier in the hills with a bird on his shoulder.
“War coverage is different from sitting in the living room,” he says. “All photographers have this experience of the logistics, how to eat, where to sleep, how to get water.”
Back at the library, he was offered 18,000 images, got them down to 200 and then, after suggestions from staff including NLA curator Guy Hansen, decided on around 150 photographs that illustrate moments in Australian history from the 1890s until the late 1940s.
“I got so used to looking at the screen, but it’s different when they’re printed out as a tactile, physical object – their power is released,” he says. “I’ve chosen a myriad of images to get cadence, a nice rhythm.”
They’re largely from Sydney and NSW and he shows me a few of his favourites, George Bell’s 1910 image of a man on a horse, industrial pictures, the Harbour Bridge paintings, the long-lost pier at Coogee Beach and an image of travelling salesmen, a profession that’s almost disappeared.
“I hope there’s something in it that shows what a good photo is meant to do,” Bowers says.
Fit to Print: Defining Moments from the Fairfax Photo Archive, National Library, February 27-July 20. Free.
A young girl holds an exceptionally large apple, c. 1930.
Sydney Morning Herald photographer George Bell’s 1910 photo of a man on a horse.
Mike Bowers… “I’ve chosen a myriad of images to get cadence, a nice rhythm.”
A child plays with the medals of a returned soldier at an Anzac Day service, Petersham, NSW, 1933.
Jean Thompson sits in her Type 37A Bugatti between races, 1930.
Herbert Henry Fishwick’s 1933 photo of lifesavers paying out rescue ropes during a surf carnival at Bondi Beach.
Signal Master Alf Gibson looking through a telescope, Sydney, 1927.
Aviatrix Miss Freda Deaton in her biplane, NSW, c. 1930.
Royal Australian Mint: see how we’ve changed
Enter the captivating world of coins at the Royal Australian Mint, operating since 1965.
The Royal Australian Mint plays an essential role as the nation’s sole producer of coin currency and through its collectible coin programs that capture and commemorate Australia’s history and culture.
Thanks to a $6 million upgrade last year, the new museum features interactive displays that will entertain old and young alike. Visitors can design their very own digital coin and see if they have what it takes to produce coins with games that test skills of efficiency and precision.
There are also new wow-factor installations, starting with the coin column as you walk through the entrance. It contains an impressive 24,432 gold $1 coins. And, yes, they’re legal tender!
Wander through the museum and take in the variety of collectible coins that commemorate historical milestones, Aussie icons and unsung heroes.
Featuring quintessential animals such as the kangaroo and koala, major events such as the Olympics and Paralympics, or the end of World Wars, these coins serve as miniature pieces of history, as well as miniature pieces of art.
From the factory viewing platform, gaze over the machines that make millions of coins each year and see the star of the show, Titan, the giant orange robot, lift barrels of gold and silver coins that weigh up to a tonne.
Downstairs, visitors can mint their own coin in the Mint Shop, or enjoy a barista coffee or a bite to eat in the café.
With free entry, tours and parking, the Mint is open from 8.30am to 5pm Monday to Friday, and from 10am to 4pm on weekends.
The Royal Australian Mint, Denison Street, Deakin, ramint.gov.au, call 1300 652 020, email hello@ramint.gov.au
Stories of Change
Be transported into the world of coins the moment you enter the museum. Our 15-metre long mural of 12,617 coins – Stories of Change – tells a comprehensive story of Australia’s circulating decimal currency.
These coins are more than just pieces of metal. They are tiny mirrors that reflect who we are and highlight what’s important to us as a nation. Hidden in this sculptural wall are hundreds of special coins – each one containing a unique story of Australia’s history. From commemorating the sacrifice and hard work of those around us, to celebrating the foods we eat to the cars we love, coins are little pieces of history in your pocket.
It also reveals changes in minting technology, such as the addition of colour printing to our commemorative coins. Some of the Mint’s most popular coin designs are on display, including the award-winning $2 Honey Bee, $2 Remembrance (red poppy) and the iconic $1 Mob of Roos.
The wall is designed for visitors to explore and touch the coins, and unlike most museum objects, was created to be tactile and hands-on.
Designing the first Australian coins
When the Mint first opened in 1965 to enable the upcoming switch to our own decimal currency, the first question that needed to be answered was – what should Australia’s coins look like?
Six artists were selected to compete for the honour of designing Australia’s new currency. The artists – who were from a range of fields including illustration, metalwork and silver smithing – were asked to submit designs around the themes of Australia’s unique flora and fauna.
Kangaroos, koalas, wattle and even a dancing brolga were some of the options put forward. Selected sketches were made into plaster sculptures to show how the design would translate into a 3D image. It was a difficult decision for the judges, but in the end it was the youngest artist –Stuart Devlin – whose designs were chosen for the back of Australia’s new currency.
With his animals filling the entire space of the coin, each delivered a strong presence through patterning – the lyrebird’s fan, the lizard’s frill, the platypus’
plaster.
ripples and the echidna’s many spines. This gives the coins a sense of movement and a liveliness, as well as consistency across the complete set.
Devlin’s designs have remained a constant and much loved part of Australia’s currency for more than 60 years.
Free entry, open 7 days Denison St, Deakin ACT 1300 652 020 | ramint.gov.au
Stories of Change Coin Mural.
Titan pouring coin blanks.
Stuart Devlin 50 cent
Barr dumps on public service to deflect blame
“Andrew
Barr can hardly blame the public service for the budgetary and policy choices he, along with his coalition partners, have made over more than a decade.” JON STANHOPE & KHALID AHMED despair at the state of the ACT.
Early in January, the local media reported Chief Minister Andrew Barr deflecting responsibility for a raft of policy failures on to the ACT Public Service, in particular, senior executives, and called for a debate about the size of the public service and the taxes it collects.
The timing of the comments – ie the Christmas/New Year break – about issues that are substantial and contentious does seem odd, especially when debate on their substance is surely warranted.
The quiet time, together with an unquestioning media provided a soft landing for Mr Barr’s thought bubbles and averted any serious analysis of his claims.
The intended audience in this instance was likely the crossbench, as was noted by our fellow columnist Michael Moore who surmised that with minority government, discussions previously held in cabinet will now likely be held on the floor of the Assembly.
Mr Barr’s comments not only provide an insight into cabinet discussions between the Labor/Green coalition partners, but also the disturbingly shallow nature of the discourse.
Referring to the changes announced in De -
cember, Mr Barr said, in a surprisingly acerbic attack on the ACT Public Service that they were necessitated by: “The ACT public service’s limited ability to develop and implement policies had been frustrating government decision-making.”
He went on to say: “We want good advice in a timely way, and then once decisions are made, we want them implemented effectively – and that’s not always happening.”
To someone unfamiliar with Australia, it would appear that Mr Barr had only recently walked into government, and having been frustrated with the capacity for policy advice, made a raft of major changes to reform the public service.
The said changes, reported in the media before Christmas, merged (a) Community Services Directorate with ACT Health, and (b) Transport and City Services with the Environment, Planning and Sustainable Development Directorate. While these mergers may result in a slight reduction in executive jobs, it is most unlikely that they will have any effect on policy capacity or implementation.
Deep deficits and mountain of debt
In any event Mr Barr can hardly blame the public service for the budgetary and policy choices he, along with his coalition partners, have made, in the sanctity of the cabinet, over
The ACT is the only Australian jurisdiction that has not posted a surplus in the 14 years since Mr Barr became Treasurer, in 2011, an outcome unmatched by any Australian jurisdiction.
Photo: Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS
more than a decade, that have resulted in persistent and deep deficits, a mountain of debt and a deterioration in services in a myriad of portfolios from better than average to the worst in the country.
The decision to cut hospital funding and beds that resulted in the worst waiting times; the decision to sell-off public housing stock to pay for the tram; the decision to cut land supply to extract supernormal profits; the decision to increase land tax when it was to be abolished that contributed to highest rents in the country; and the decision to impose double and triple-whammy taxation under a fabled “tax reform” were all decisions the responsibility for which rests on Mr Barr’s and his partner in government Shane Rattenbury’s shoulders.
It is ironic that before Mr Barr blamed the public service, one of the most senior ACT health officials had laid the blame at the feet of, wait, “the system”. That deflection, which became the object of some well-deserved ridicule along with this “diagnosis” by the Chief Minister begs an obvious question, who is in charge and who is accountable for the terrible mess in government finances and service delivery?
The public service and its leadership should of course be held to account. Numerous auditor-general’s reports have highlighted major failures in implementing programs and delivering projects, including examples involving the expenditure of tens of millions of dollars with virtually nothing to show for the largesse.
To date, there is no evidence that there have been any repercussions for officials. However, there is clear evidence of ministers, without exception, not being on top of their briefs.
It is unlikely, for example, that they were not advised that selling off thousands of units of public housing stock would result in higher costs for renters on low incomes in the private market, or that their housing renewal program was premised on evictions of vulnerable, old and/or disabled women, or that with debt growing at more than 20 per cent annually any budgetary flexibility would inevitably simply evaporate, as indeed it has.
The December changes, while giving an appearance of action, will not avoid any of these major failures.
Public financial management is complex
Mr Barr’s call for a debate was accompanied by his observation that “any debate about the size of the public sector and the territory’s tax base should consider every Australian jurisdiction had a budget deficit, with the exception of Western Australia”.
There we have it – there are only two choices: increase taxes or cut services, after all, according to Mr Barr, any problems with the public sector (in)efficiency and waste
have already been addressed through those mergers.
Public financial management, however, is much more complex. It involves choices between competing priorities, between options of different efficacy, between policies for today and those for a later time, and between meeting the needs of some and the wants of others.
As an example, any sensible discussion about expenditure priorities would compare how many public housing dwellings could be built with the $577 million committed to the construction of a 1.7km tram line; how many households will benefit through lower rents; and how many vulnerable people will not need to be forcibly evicted from their existing home?
Are there better and cheaper ways of transporting people from Civic to Commonwealth Park while at the same time meeting the basic human needs of vulnerable Canberrans?
Questions may, in fact must, also be asked about whether all of that money, or some of it, could be better or more appropriately spent on our hospital emergency departments and urgent surgery.
These questions are not unique to the ACT, and all jurisdictions grapple with sectoral allocation and prioritisation decisions. Such choices, while informed by “technical” analysis, are also reflective of the “values” of a government and the community it serves.
The only justification Mr Barr has provided for the binary choice is that all jurisdictions (except WA) are in deficit. Some premiers may in fact dispute this assessment. SA’s budget is in surplus, in 2024-25 and across the forward estimates. Even Victoria, the state referred to in the national media as a basket case, will start its 2025-26 budget in surplus.
All jurisdictions have posted surpluses in the past and have forecast some in the future. Notably the ACT is the only Australian jurisdiction that has not posted a surplus in the 14 years since Mr Barr became Treasurer, in 2011, a quite staggering outcome unmatched, we believe, by any Australian jurisdiction. Barr’s run of deficits will continue
Worryingly, it is almost certain that the run of deficits delivered by Mr Barr will continue, at a minimum, for as far as the estimates are published.
We have written extensively and provided data from independent sources such as the ABS, the Commonwealth Grants Commission and the audited financial statements to highlight that the ACT is the highest taxing jurisdiction in Australia.
This was not always the case, and in fact the ACT moved from a below-average taxing jurisdiction to the highest in Australia in the decade after Mr Barr ascended to the Treasury.
Regrettably, the tax increases imposed by Mr Barr and his Labor and Green colleagues have disproportionately and unfairly impacted lower to moderate income households, and contrary to the tedious claim of being a progressive government, the changes to the taxation regime have been deeply regressive.
Notwithstanding the above comments, we will welcome a debate on taxes and the size of the ACT public service. Any such discourse should, of course, include a detailed assessment of the distribution of the taxation burden and the efficacy of existing planned expenditure.
The release of the business case for stage 2a of the tram would be a good start to such a conversation.
Jon Stanhope is a former chief minister of the ACT and Dr Khalid Ahmed a former senior ACT Treasury official.
NATIONAL TRUST (ACT) newsletter
Trust all abuzz with a busy, new year program
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
Welcome to our first column for the year on National Trust of Australia (ACT) activities.
We are delighted to welcome Linda Keyser as our new Executive Director. Linda has had extensive management and strategic policy experience in both the public and private sectors and will be a tremendous asset to the Trust.
She has already hit the ground running and will help us continue to professionalise and further improve the services we offer to our members and the community at large.
A very big thank you to Gary Watkins, who is retiring from his position as Trust manager. During Gary’s time in this position and before then as a member of the Trust Council, Gary has made a massive contribution to the work of the Trust in so many ways. We wish him well in his future endeavours.
Self-guided tour brochures
We continue to roll out our series of self-guided tour brochures, our latest covers Oaks Estate (see upcoming events for our next walk), and more are in preparation including Barton, Yarralumla, Reid and Ainslie.
Kingston shops
The ACT Heritage Council has sought more time from the Minister for Heritage to finalise the heritage registration for the Kingston shops, which are Canberra’s oldest.
One of the submissions to the Council was from the Greater Canberra group who advocated that “the listed shops are similar to many other Canberra shops… and so are not worthy of heritage listing.”
It is a dangerous situation where pressing issues of cheaper and more housing drive the agenda for the demolition or degradation of heritage buildings, oblivious to the economic, tourism, cultural and social benefits of appreciating and promoting our past.
Belconnen Library
We were delighted to receive news from the Heritage Council that it had decided to heritage list the Belconnen Library.
The library was designed in 1979 by the prominent Australian architect Robin Gibson for the National Capital Development Commission.
I encourage you to read the reasons given by the Council for the listing: legislation.act.gov.au/ni/2024-714
It is encouraging that the heritage significance of recent buildings (1982 in this case) is being recognised.
Light rail
We met recently with Andrew Braddock MLA, the ACT Greens Transport spokesperson, to discuss the work of the Trust, with a special emphasis on the potential heritage impacts of Light Rail State 2B. This was a most productive meeting and we look forward to further meetings with our federal and territory politicians on matters of concern to the Trust.
We were pleased to welcome Leanne Castley, the Leader of the Opposition, to our Christmas Party at Gungahlin Homestead on December 8.
The year ahead
The Trust has a busy program for the year, including the Heritage Festival, our Heritage Oration, the Polaris, awards and symposium, plus our usual series of tours, walks and talks.
We are always looking for more volunteers to help us with our important work. Please contact me at president@nationaltrustact.org.au should you wish to discuss how you might be able to assist.
UPCOMING EVENTS
MICHELAGO SELF-DRIVE VISIT,
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 26
Our guides at the cemetry have long associations with the area. We then head to the heritage-listed Michelago Railway Station. A delicious country-style morning tea awaits as we listen to members of the Michelago community share the district’s history. Book at trybooking.com/CZAXW
OAKS ESTATE HERITAGE WALK, SUNDAY, MARCH 23
We will explore this area around the MolongloQueanbeyan Rivers junction first recorded by Europeans in the 1820s.
Bookings open on February 23 at trybooking.com/CXZFV
HERITAGE POLARIS, SATURDAY, APRIL 12
This event takes in heritage sites spread throughout Canberra and is the best bike navigation event in Australia.
Come and make tracks in the capital as teams of two (or more) riders take to the cycle paths, forests and roads seeking out a choice of checkpoints in a seven-hour event that is open to serious riders, recreational riders, families and teams of all ages.
Don’t have seven hours to spare? Why not consider the Half Heritage Polaris. Register at heritagepolaris.com.au
SEVEN-DAY WESTERN VICTORIAN TOUR
After our popular 2024 tours to Tumut and the Sapphire Coast, this year’s multi-day coach tour (Monday, September 8 to Sunday, September 14) will take us into Victoria. It offers a fabulous itinerary taking in Grampians, homesteads, gardens, museums, silo art, Tae Rak Aquaculture Centre, The Stick Shed, Seppelts Great Western Winery and more.
Email events@ nationaltrustact.org.au to find out more and secure your spot!
The National Trust receives support and funding from the ACT Government.
Supported by:
Gary Kent – President
Linda Keyser… new National Trust of Australia (ACT) Executive Director.
Driven past many times and wondered what’s at Michelago? Join our tour which starts at the cemetery there on March 26.
What a buzz to see such an array of cars and memorabilia at Ollie’s Garage in Fyshwick! Thanks to owners Ian and Tina Oliver for our exclusive members’ visit on February 5.
Shallow planning beleaguers urban development PLANNING
The widespread dissatisfaction with Canberra’s urban development is a product of shallow planning and transport strategies.
Its land use-transport planning, like other Australian cities, is based on the compact model of increasing housing in areas close to employment, facilities and services.
This is in order to reduce travel, car use and infrastructure expenditure and widen housing choice with higher-density housing developed in locations of high metropolitan accessibility and along major transport corridors served by high-frequency public transport.
It is difficult to disagree with the 2018 Planning Strategy’s vision “of a sustainable, competitive and equitable city that respects Canberra as a city in the landscape and national capital while being responsive to the future and resilience to change” or its city themes of compact and efficient, diverse, sustainable and resilient, liveable and accessible.
The problem is the strategy is little more than a series of platitudes with the government failing to translate the model and broad vision into policies underpinned by detailed analysis to effectively guide the development of the city.
A key direction, to develop at least 70 per cent of new housing in the existing urban footprint to achieve the compact city objectives, was determined without assessments of whether the claimed benefits could be delivered.
What is the extent of infrastructure cost savings in areas undergoing redevelopment? Substantial additional population could require significant additional infrastructure. How much, for example, infrastructure augmentation occurred in north Canberra to accommodate the increase in its population from 38,600 in 2001 to more than 62,000 in 2022 and how much will be needed to accommodate the projected 100,000 by 2042?
Has travel and car use been reduced by consolidation policies? Have any benefits been offset by increased travel from car-dependent developments in the region? What has been the reduction in revenue (land sales, rates and lower Commonwealth grants) from the diversion of detached
It’s time the government developed an evidence-based strategy as it can no longer afford to base planning decisions on platitudinous twaddle.
housing demand to the region? Has the reduction in the supply of new detached dwellings contributed to increased house prices by limiting the housing choice available?
Unsurprisingly, given their poor analytical base, the government’s redevelopment policies have undergone frequent revision.
The policies often have produced poor-quality developments with loss of vegetation, poor privacy and solar access, parking blight, congestion, increased runoff and few affordable townhouse and dual-occupancy dwellings.
The government’s ill-conceived approach is reflected in the policy of permitting the potential unit titling of 45,000 dwellings in RZ1 areas for dual occupancy, provided the second dwelling was under 120sqm. From November 2023 to November 2024 only 33 applications were received.
The policies are again being reviewed with Minister Chris Steel foreshadowing changes to promote the development of “missing middle”
What happens next?
Have you ever been curious about the care provided to a loved one after their passing?
We invite you to join the ACT InvoCare team, at our Mortuary Open Night.
The event will feature a guided tour of our support centre facilities, offering insight into our compassionate services.
housing. The review is to be guided by a report (not being made public – why not?) on planning and economic feasibility analysis, by Purdon Planning, a firm specialising in submitting DAs for developers.
The review is unlikely to produce quality outcomes as it is not guided by a comprehensive analysis of housing preferences, dwelling design, the scope for block amalgamation, the infrastructure augmentation required and how it is to be funded.
The government’s transport policies have failed to reduce car use. How appropriate has the focus on light rail been? Would other strategies, including increasing parking charges, reducing parking supply, improving bike and cycle paths, extending the frequency and coverage of bus network, increasing electric buses, dispersing employment and bus rapid transit, have been more effective?
With substantial unmet needs in health and social housing and high debt, why did it commit to stage 2a ($577 million for 1.7 kilometres) especially given the uncertainty over stage 2b?
An urgent policy review is necessary. Essential background reading should include The Next Australian
It recently won the overall award for Planning Excellence at the Queensland Planning Institute of Australia conference. The judges noted the publication’s strength in “igniting crucial conversations and encouraging robust debate on the role of suburbs within the national urban landscape”. It contains diverse, sometimes contradictory views about the past and possible future role of suburbs, drawing on international and Australian experience.
Each capital city has a separate chapter. The Canberra chapter highlights how Canberra reflects the evolution of planning approaches including neighbourhood and land use-transport planning.
It’s time the government developed an evidence-based strategy as it can no longer afford to base planning decisions on platitudinous twaddle.
Mike Quirk is a former NCDC and ACT govern ment planner.
City edited by Guy Gibson and Ross Elliot.
Trump’s climate call is America’s day of infamy
While all the chaotic fireworks were exploding from Trump’s Oval Office – from Canada as the 51st State to Gaza as his waterfront Club Med – one little cracker caused barely a flicker of interest in a bedazzled media.
His decision to abandon the Paris Agreement on climate change is an act that will go down as America’s day of infamy. He not only committed a crime against humanity, but against all life on planet Earth.
The agreement’s legally binding goal is “to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and to pursue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C “. It notes that greenhouse gas emissions must peak before 2025 at the latest and decline 43 per cent by 2030.’
President Trump is the leader of the nation that creates the second largest share of these gases. He is a multiple offender. His first withdrawal was as the 45th President. It was immediately restored by his successor Joe Biden. This time he’s doubled down with a battlecry to the oil and gas industries: “Dig, baby, dig!”
Aside from nuclear war, it’s hard to imagine a more destructive act from any human being. Yet the
world’s leaders have remained silent. The Australian Government and opposition excuses themselves from commenting on anything said or done by the American president, unless he calls Albo “a very fine man” in a “constructive and warm discussion” on tariffs. Our Pacific “family” must surely be outraged at Trump and the selective Australian silence. Instead, Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles shovels $800 million
into the official pockets of former Fox News weekend host Pete Hegseth in his new gig as Defense Secretary. It’s billed as a down payment for a submarine that might (or might not) be delivered in 20 years or so depending on the whim of the then president. Hegseth could barely contain himself. His voice sounded the usual platitudes, but his face said: “Mother was right – there’s one born every day”.
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Aside from nuclear war, it’s hard to imagine a more destructive act from any human being. Yet the world’s leaders have remained silent.
The American public who elected Trump – and who have tasted the consequences in the Los Angeles fires and ever-stronger tornadoes – seem immune to today’s reality, much less to an almost unimaginable future.
And while we’re in an imaginative mood, think of the worldwide reaction if China’s Xi Jinping committed a similar climate change felony: Uproar!
Of course, that’s not going to happen. While Washington is tearing itself apart, Beijing is reaping the whirlwind. The White House fireworks and DeepSeek’s coincidental public emergence symbolised the tale of two very different cities.
Trump is clearly itching for a fight, if only via trade. He can practise his art of the deal moves with Greenland, Gaza and the Panama Canal. But a symbolic visit to Taipei, for example, is a very different matter. That’s when
our “very fine man” and his government will begin to regret the day they were born.
I suspect it’s beyond even Donald J Trump to do something quite so outlandish but, like most other columnists, I’ve underestimated the lengths he will go to impose himself on the world we know and love.
Though I’ve met two very different American presidents – Nixon and Johnson – I couldn’t envisage a time when any Commander-in-Chief would encourage a mob to storm the Capitol and threaten the lives of its elected Congress, including his own vicepresident.
I would laugh out loud at the suggestion that any incumbent of the Oval Office would condemn the planet to the terminal ravages of climate change.
So I could be wrong again.
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Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles, left, meets American Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth at the Pentagon… Hegseth sounded the usual platitudes, but his face said: “Mother was right – there’s one born every day”. Photo: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Unsustainable health budget surprises no one
News that the ACT health budget is unsustainable, should come as a surprise to no one.
Jon Stanhope and I don’t always agree on policy matters, however I find myself in furious lockstep with what he said at a monthly meeting of the ALP Mt Rogers sub-branch more than two decades ago.
In his usual report to the assembled members, Jon opined that he didn’t want to be in government in 2030, as he didn’t know how the health bill would be paid.
Jon and I are both among those significantly contributing to this growing dilemma. We are both baby boomers, the demographic whose cost to the health system continues to increase exponentially.
All governments, of all political persuasions, have been aware, or should have been aware, that this major dilemma was speeding towards them and planned accordingly.
No manner of “creative accounting” will solve this conundrum and I wish Chris Steel well with his attempts to do so.
Ian De Landelles, Murrays Beach, NSW I suggest light rail has become unaffordable
In their analysis of the ACT government’s budget from 2024-2025 to 2027-2028 ( “ACT budget shock: How Barr broke the bank”, CN February 13) Jon Stanhope and Khalid Ahmed conclude with the statement “He
(Shane Rattenbury) may wish to begin (making sense of the parlous state of the ACT budget) by pondering what cuts to vital services could have been avoided but for stage 2a’s $577 million spent on a 1.7 km tram journey”.
I have seen estimates of the final cost of light rail stage 2A of up to $1.46 billion, which does not include the loss of taxable income from the numerous businesses forced to close for three years while the western sector of London Circuit is closed for the building of light rail tracks.
The costing of light rail to Woden has still not been revealed. Stage 2B will include a new span of Commonwealth Avenue bridge and a large amount of earthworks to level, and in some areas widen, the median of Adelaide Avenue and Yarra Glen over several kilometres.
The cost of all this work will likely amount to several billions, and drive the ACT government’s budget further into the black hole of deficit. I suggest that light rail has become unaffordable.
Dr Douglas Mackenzie, Deakin
No hill that Labor’s light might shine
To sum up Dr Jenny Stewart’s excellent column (“Advance Australia… before it’s too late, please”, CN February 13): how do we know what we need to get where we want to go, if we don’t know what we want it to be like when we get there?
And it’s not only Coalition governments that have lacked initiative and vision, Labor hasn’t done much better on the progressive front.
I’ve always regarded the Hawke government as the best government in Australia’s history – best conservative government, that is.
And since Hawke and Keating, Labor has retreated even further into the “afraidto-do-anything-meaningful” cave where there’s no visionary light on the hill, because there’s no hill of ambition upon which the light might shine.
Eric Hunter, Cook
Will Cheyne take up the coronial challenge?
As a member of the ACT Coronial Advocacy Group (ACAG), myself and others worked in consultation (over an 18-month period) with an independent facilitator (IF).
The IF was engaged to speak to families and relevant coronial stakeholders, including ACT Courts and the police to bring the groups together to improve the operation of
the ACT Coroners Court, including ensuring that it better fulfils its key objective to prevent unnecessary deaths.
The IF produced a report, which was tabled in the ACT Legislative Assembly during the last sitting week of 2024 before the election by the ACT’s previous attorney-general Shane Rattenbury.
The report identified that the ACT is the only jurisdiction in Australia where the chief coroner is also the chief magistrate.
The IF recommended that this should be the subject of an independent review to determine if this is in the best interests of a timely and effective ACT coronial process, and whether it serves to strengthen the delivery of justice to the ACT community.
ACAG was disappointed that Mr Rattenbury did not commit to implement the independent review. However, since then, the ACT has a new Attorney-General, Tara Cheyne; and ACAG is hopeful she will commit to actioning the review.
As a mother who was adversely impacted by the experience of enduring my daughter’s (Brontë) coronial hearing, I implore Ms Cheyne to seriously consider the recommendations in the report commencing with a review of the ACT Coroners Court.
The ACT has a golden opportunity to improve the coronial processes for grieving families with a trauma-informed, personcentred restorative process.
Janine Haskins, Alliance for Coronial Reform
dose of dorin
Go for a walk away from social media
Congratulations to Peter Forster (letters, CN February 6) for requesting more local news in CityNews and the Canberra Times.
We have all had enough of Trump and disinformation in social media. Surely it is time to hear more about our own community and a lot less about events that will never directly affect us.
Our neighbours, community workers and those who make a direct contribution locally like local businesses are the most important people in our lives.
The unhappy letters in both newspapers seem to be written by those privileged few, glued to foreign news who know or care little about the contribution they could make in their own backyard.
They should go for a walk and talk to someone they don’t know to face reality away from social media.
John Kimber, Lyneham Conservation Council’s Damascus moment?
Travelling in Canberra’s mostly-fossil-fuelled
Its “Make the Move” website encourages us to travel by bus rather than by car, to “reduce our ecological footprint”.
Two years ago I argued in CityNews that we should transition more quickly to electric buses. The Conservation Council responded by expelling me from its transport working group and banning me from its office.
It then applied (unsuccessfully) for a court order to prohibit me from entering its office, contacting its board or staff, or writing about it in the media.
Paul the Apostle stopped persecuting Christians after Christ appeared to him while he was travelling to Damascus.
The Conservation Council now supports a quicker transition to electric buses and recently posted that, “fossil fuels are like a modern day version of tobacco”.
Did the Conservation Council recently drive to Damascus?
Leon Arundell, Downer
Time to get cracking on solar gardens
As a shareholder in the Haystacks Community Solar Garden Co-op, I was heartened to see your excellent coverage in “Harvest time for first solar garden” (CN February 2).
Most people are unaware of community
apartments. But solar gardens change all that. The solar garden is installed off site so there are no worries about installation, plus the insurance and ongoing maintenance is all included in the plot price.
Each of the co-operative members purchases “a plot” (panels) in the solar garden regardless of where they live. The electricity generated is sold to an electricity retailer, and they provide a credit on the members’ electricity bills.
Even if members move house, they simply change their address with the electricity retail partner and solar garden credits continue to arrive. Haystacks Solar Garden has proven so popular that all 175 solar garden plots were sold in September 2023. There are nearly 200 solar gardens in the US – Australia must get cracking.
Ray Peck, Hawthorn, Victoria
Candidates should know the nuclear costs
Peter Dutton seems to revel in making Canberra bashing a weekly occurrence. Having promised to cut 36,000 jobs “in Canberra”, he has now suggested that there are no “real families” in Canberra.
Hopefully, members of a wide variety of
They might also ask hard questions about the few Coalition policy announcements made public so far.
For example, about reasons for only sticking to a net zero emissions target for 2050 and shying away from any possible 2030 and 2035 target setting until in government.
Also, about needing to acknowledge voter concerns about the predicted impacts of uncertainty and costs for power users over many years while seven nuclear reactors are planned in detail, skilled labour is secured, approvals are obtained at federal, state land community levels, and how massive construction projects on decommissioned and rehabilitated old coal-fuelled power plant sites somehow could deliver the first couple of nuclear power plants by 2037.
All the while knowing that hundreds of billions of taxpayer funds will be needed to produce a power source that by 2050 would only meet 38 per cent of this country’s energy needs.
Candidates should be ready to discuss the costings and sources of key nuclear plant operational inputs like the 2000 litres of water per second that each reactor requires over its lifetime, especially when they will function in increasingly hotter and drier areas.
Like others elsewhere, “real” ACT parents and grandparents will want to know about
Helping Hands help charities across Canberra
Hands Across Canberra is holding its annual Canberra Day Appeal to support more than 350 charities across the region. This year, in addition to direct donations, people can contribute by registering for the Canberra Day Appeal Fun Run on March 10. Money raised supports causes such as health, education, social inclusion and emergency relief. Every dollar donated to a participating charity through the Canberra Day Appeal will be matched up to $2500 per charity.
Downsizing with care
Melissa Freisier, from Downsizing with Care, which assists and advises people downsizing their homes, is the guest speaker at the next lunch meeting of the Gungahlin Day View Club at the Gungahlin Lakes Golf Club, Nicholls, from 11.30am on February 26. Lunch is $35 per person. Guests and interested ladies welcome. RSVP to 0413 923933 by February 23.
Clothing for Africa
Carol Mead, founder of Canberra Circle of Women, an organisation supporting the poor in Africa and parts of Asia with donations of clothing is the guest speaker at the March 4 lunch meeting of the Weston Creek
Gather by warming fire buckets, indulge in hearty food and boutique brews, enjoy the sounds of nationally renowned musicians together with local artists along with amazing live acts and Wiradjuri cultural performances.
SATURDAY 21 JUNE 2025 4PM - 10PM FORBES SKI DAM
CONFERENCES & TRAINING
Conferences, training and finding the right venue
Finding the right venue can assist in the success rate of a conference or training day. From the atmosphere, catering, accessible audio-visual equipment and location, a lot can go into making a work event a success.
Here’s a guide to quality training and conference spaces available in the Canberra region that are suitable for any upcoming event.
A blend of character and functionality
Located within a historic building, general manager of the Royal Hotel Queanbeyan Matt Lomas says they offer a blend of character and functionality to conferences and professionaldevelopment events.
“We provide three multi-functional event spaces, each designed for versatility and equipped with modern amenities,” he says.
“Every room connects to an outdoor courtyard and atrium, creating the perfect setting for breakout sessions, networking and moments of fresh air.”
Matt says their Upper House space is designed for flexibility, allowing them to tailor it to any client’s requirements.
“Whether it’s cabaret, theatre, cocktail or boardroom-style set-ups, our venue adapts seamlessly,” he says.
“Each room is fitted with high-quality AV technology and our purpose-built kitchen delivers
outstanding catering tailored to suit any event style.”
Matt says the event spaces cater from small to large groups of up to 120 people.
“Our venue is a popular choice for networking events, offering a sophisticated setting for professionals to connect and collaborate,” he says.
Regularly hosting corporate training days, boardroom-style conferences and industry workshops, Matt says they accommodate both in-person and remote participants via the use of large screens, high-speed connectivity support and Apple AirPlay to allow for wireless connectivity.
“Combined with exceptional customer service, we ensure a smooth and professional experience for every occasion,” says Matt.
Royal Hotel Queanbeyan, 85 Monaro Street, Queanbeyan. Call 6297 1444 or visit royalhotelqbn.com.au
Top-floor conference centre in a prime location
Offering views of Lake Ginninderra, Black Mountain and the Brindabellas, the 59 Cameron Av Conference and Event Centre, located on the top floor of the Mercure Canberra Belconnen, is a purpose-built facility designed to host conferences and professionaldevelopment events.
“We’re nestled in a prime location,” says director of sales and marketing, Natasha Mijoc.
With 260 on-site car parks with direct access to the conference floor, Natasha says convenience is guaranteed.
“Flexibility is at the heart of what we do,” she says.
“Our spaces can be combined into larger rooms or split into smaller, more intimate settings and are perfect for any event size.
“From the moment you book, a detailed onsite contact works closely with you to customise every aspect of your event and a dedicated function supervisor will ensure everything runs seamlessly on the day.”
Catering to residential conferences to high-powered board meetings, Natasha says event attendees have access to pre -
mium accommodation “just steps away”, alongside a vibrant selection of cafes and bars within walking distance.
Commended for its natural light, picturesque views and inclusive menu, Natasha says the centre creates a refreshing and energising atmosphere for attendees.
“Our state-of-the-art Ngunnawal Boardroom is a standout choice for local and interstate organisations, featuring advanced video conferencing technology integrated into the boardroom table for a seamless meeting experience,” says Natasha.
“Anticipating the needs of a modern audience, we’ve embraced evolving technologies and accessibility standards.”
Mercure Hotel Belconnen, 59 Cameron Avenue, Belconnen ACT. Call 5104 3000 or visit mercurebelconnen.com.au
CONFERENCES & TRAINING
Location choices to suit all sizes of events
Equipped with modern amenities such as free wifi, portable white boards, a sound system, projector and a screen ensuring all presenters and attendees have the necessary tools for a successful event, says Northside Community Service Deputy CEO Todd Everett. He says the location and amenities of their various spaces ensures that event organisers and participants have a hassle-free experience every time.
“Our easy-to-use technology supports a wide range of presentation and training methods,” he says.
“We also have a range of venue sizes and flexible venue options to suit various event formats, whether it’s a small workshop, mid-sized seminar or a larger conference.”
With disability friendly facilities and secured door access via email codes, Todd says they eliminate the need for physical keys.
“Organisers have appreciated our keyless access
system,” he says.
“Our secure system makes it easy for organisers to access the venue without logistical challenges.”
Todd says they have ample natural light and temperature-controlled spaces, making for an efficient and relaxed atmosphere.
“Our venues have been used by not-for-profit organisations, government organisations, volunteer groups and community development agencies for training, workshops, conferences, community programs, meetings and as a vaccination centre and clinic.”
Equipped with high-speed wifi, projectors and sound systems to support virtual and hybrid events, Todd says they can sit anywhere from 10 to 88 people at a time in their venues.
Northside Community Service. Call 6171 8000 or visit northside.asn.au/venue-hire/
Conference
Oaks Ranch is a luxury, 14-room boutique hotel, restaurant, bar, event and conference facility and golf course, says general manager Josh Tyler.
“We are situated on the south coast, five minutes from Broulee Beach on 300 acres, flanked by the Tomago River and Candlagan Creek,” he says.
“The Oaks Ranch first opened in 1970. The current owners closed the hotel in June 2021 to renovate and elevate the property’s offering, before we reopened in February 2022.
“Our conference and event facilities offer everything from boardroom-style to cabaret conferencing, weddings and events with a large alfresco breakout area, stunning views west across the property to the Deua mountain ranges.
“The venue has high-speed, reliable wifi, a dropdown data projector with audio surround, flipcharts and a whiteboard.”
Josh says the restaurant and bar, Arlo, is a refined casual eating experience, influenced by Australian, Asian and European cuisines.
“For conferencing we offer full or half-day delegate packages, a selection of house-made sweets and savoury snacks for our morning and afternoon teas,” he says.
“Our conference lunches range from gourmet sandwiches on local artisan breads to dining in Arlo. We also offer barista-made coffee, specialty teas, and in-house breakfast for overnight guests.
“Oaks Ranch is a Spanish mission-style property, a rural oasis with a sense of tranquillity – and the sunsets are truly amazing.”
Oaks Ranch, 340 Old Mossy Point Road, Mossy Point, NSW. Call 4471 7403, or visit oaksranch.com.au
Salthouse Community Centre, Braddon dedicated to Disability Rights Advocate Sue Salthouse.
Soldiers Club provides tranquil venue
Known for its modern facilities, exceptional service and location, promotions and loyalty co-ordinator, of the Goulburn Soldiers Club, Emma McColl says it’s a premier venue for conferences and professional events.
“This scenic setting provides a tranquil and inspiring backdrop, perfect for networking, team-building and corporate gatherings,” she says.
Overlooking Belmore Park in Goulburn, Emma says the club tailors its spaces, services and training programs by offering versatile room set ups, industryspecific event support and a variety of catering options.
“We provide scalable conference layouts, professional AV tech and private spaces to suit different industries,” she says.
From corporate seminars to hands-on training, Emma says they host a variety of diverse conferences and training sessions.
“We host anything from government meetings, professional development workshops, industry networking events and trade training sessions,” she says.
“Sectors such as healthcare, education, hospitality, agriculture and business leadership frequently utilise the venue for presentations, skills training and team building activities.”
Emma says they have integrated modern learning technologies and flexible event solutions to adapt to the changing industry,
“We continuously update our facilities and services to meet evolving industry needs, providing a seamless and innovative event experience.”
Located within an easy walking distance from major office buildings, including government departments, Pilgrim House conference centre manager Susan du Boulay says Pilgrim House is the perfect venue for workplaces to host training days and seminars.
With a variety of room sizes and configurations, Susan says they tailor the space and services to meet the needs of different audiences.
The location on Northbourne Avenue makes for an accessible location for Canberran businesses.
“We are close to the light rail and other public transport,” she says.
“We’re also close to the centre of Canberra.”
Constantly evolving learning technologies and adapting to changing industry needs, Susan says they have an assortment of digital project equipment, free wi-fi for presenters and participants, and a public address system in larger spaces.
“We are often appreciated for our attention to detail and are proud of our readily available support,” says Susan.
Ensuring compliance with health and work standards
Offering multiple options for standard compliance training and nationally recognised training, Ferst Training Solutions CEO Gary Cheeseman says the company works closely with clients to create alternative options such as online training to allow participants to maintain compliance.
“During the national COVID-19 response effort, employers began to amend enterprise bargaining agreements with flexible working arrangements affecting face-to-face training,” says Gary.
“Our emergency response specialists go out of their way to make time to attend industry seminars and review changes to legislation.”
With more than 15 years of experience managing emergency response compliance in Canberra, Gary says their specialists work closely with clients to determine the requirements for the site to remain compliant with Australian standards and work, health and safety legislation.
“Regular communication is maintained with our clients to ensure that emergency response within the workplace remains a priority,” he says.
Training is primarily conducted at the client’s workplace or at the Ferst head office training room. Companies can expect to learn about emergency control organisation training, fire awareness and extinguisher training, building evacuation and training with test drill, spill kit training as well as nationally recognised training courses.
Ferst Training Solutions, 1/2 Yallourn Street, Fyshwick. Call 1300 333 778 or visit ferst.com.au
Pilgr im House Conference Centre
Pilgrim House conference facilities are located adjacent to Canberra City Uniting Church on the corner of Nor thbourne Avenue and Rudd Street in Civic. For more details visit w w w.canberracit yuca.org.au/conferencecentre or call 02 6257 4600.
Ferst Training Solutions CEO Gary Cheeseman.
Local experts offering great skill and knowledge
Expertise is defined as having special skill or knowledge that is acquired by training, study or practice. In this feature, we meet some of Canberra’s best experts in all sorts of things.
At Arthritis ACT, CEO Rebecca Davey says “you are not just a number.”
“You’re an individual with an individual plan and goals to improve your health.”
Tackling the rising cost of living is a constant nightmare for anyone living with a chronic condition, says Rebecca.
“When you are stressed about keeping a roof over your head and food on the table, some of those other things that are essential to your health and wellbeing do have to become secondary matters.”
Rebecca says Arthritis ACT offers a range of lower-cost programs to allow people to continue to stay connected and do their exercise therapy.
“We also offer free services such as support groups, so people remain connected and working on maintaining their health and wellbeing,” she says.
Arthritis ACT offers a vast array of exercise classes that have stemmed from client ideas.
“We now even run dance classes!” says Rebecca.
“We may not get you out on the stage, but people are exercising and reliving their youth through dance.”
Every day, Rebecca says she hears people say “you’ve changed my life”.
“At Arthritis, Pain Support and ME/CFS ACT, we provide holistic services to look after your mind and body.”
Rebecca says living with a chronic condition
can get lonely, which is why she is passionate about people “finding their tribe”.
“Once you start doing classes, attending support groups, coming along to education sessions, you start to realise that you are not alone,” she says.
Arthritis ACT, Pain Support & ME/CFS ACT, 170 Haydon Drive, Bruce. Call 1800 011041 or visit arthritisact.org.au
Working in the bicycle industry in Canberra since 1986, David Cook is the owner of Cookies Cycles in Franklin.
Working predominantly in repairs, David says he has been selling electric bikes (e-bikes) for more than 20 years.
“What seems to be the most popular e-bikes at the moment are the Ampd Bros Ace bikes, which have 20inch fat-tyre wheels that are popular with teenagers all the way through to adults in their senior years,” he says.
“These bikes are really fun to ride with plenty of power for off-road as well.
“They are definitely the highest quality and best performing on the market at the moment which is why they are so popular.”
David says all bikes sold at Cookies Cycles come with a 12 months free labour plan.
“This means if anything goes wrong with the bike in the first 12 months, and if it is in warranty, you pay nothing,” he says.
“If it’s out of warranty, such as a flat tyre or other damage, you only pay for the parts.
“You can also bring the bike back when it is about 10 months old to get an extra free service done to make sure everything is okay.”
David says they are currently offering a free essentials pack with any Ampd Bros bike sold.
“The essentials pack includes a series three rear cargo rack, thumb throttle and rear folding foot pegs, all valued at $150.”
Cookies Cycles, 227 Flemington Road, Franklin. Call 6242 0338 or visit cookiescycles.com.au
Arthritis ACT CEO Rebecca Davey.
Cookies Cycles owner David Cook.
THE EXPERTS advertising feature
James sets trend for sustainable furniture
According to Ex-Government Furniture co-owner, James Fullerton, clients are increasingly prioritising affordability, durability and sustainability.
“Many businesses and individuals seek high-quality furniture at a fraction of retail prices, especially with the rising costs of new office furniture,” he says.
“There’s a growing demand for ergonomic setups with a focus on workplace wellness.”
According to James, clients love the idea of repurposing government furniture rather than contributing to landfill waste.
“Years of handling commercial-grade furniture has given us a deep insight into durability, materials and top manufacturers,” says James.
“This expertise allows us to guide clients toward the best-value, ergonomic and space-efficient solutions for their needs.”
James says many of his clients struggle with budget constraints, durability and ergonomic needs.
“Many government agencies and corporations refresh their office setups periodically, which means we get access to high-quality and well-maintained desks, chairs, filing cabinets and more,” he says.
“We carefully inspect and refurbish items as needed, ensuring they meet client expectations.”
For clients with specific needs, James says they track inventory trends and source targeted items when possible.
“Establishing trust and continuing positive relationships with our long-time customers is incredibly important to us and our commitment to customer service and helping our clients find exactly what they need is a joy.”
Ex-Government Furniture, 6 Yallourn Street. Call 6280 6490 or visit exgovfurniture.com or facebook.com/exgovfurniture
Charlie and Raffy pave the way for young mechanics
Charlie Sgroi has dedicated more than 45 years of experience to his business, Car Mechanical Services, alongside his wife and co-owner, Raffy.
Car Mechanical Services provides training programs for young mechanics, as there is always a training shortage in the automobile industry, Raffy says.
The company’s Skills and Inclusion Programs and My Career Portfolio, which are ongoing programs, blend mentorship, practical experience and handson learning to equip students.
Raffy’s dedication to changing the industry extends to encouraging more female participation and inclusion by creating a safe space for women and those living with a disability to learn the skills and confidence necessary to enter and navigate the complexities of the modern job market.
“We’re leading by example, and when you’ve got an inclusive workplace, there is harmony,” she says.
The Fisher-based company was named champion in the automotive services category at the 2024 Australian Women’s Small Business Champion Awards and Raffy won a gold Stevie award in the Best Entrepreneur – Automotive & Transport Equipment category at the 21st International Business Awards. At the same awards, Raffy won a bronze Stevie for the Sustainability Leadership Award in Asia, Australia and NZ at the International Business Awards, and a silver in the Excellence in Diversity and Inclusion category.
These awards follow on from Car Mechanical Services being one of the first automobile repair companies in Canberra to win a sustainable small business of the year award, in 2023.
Car Mechanical Services, 82 Kalgoorlie Crescent, Fisher. Call 6162 4111 or visit carmechanicalservices.com.au
Ex-Government Furniture co-owners Taylor Radnell, left, and James Fullerton.
Car Mechanical Services owners Charlie and Raffy Sgroi.
THE EXPERTS advertising feature
There’s science behind Daryn’s love of the law
Initially pursuing a career in science, Daryn Griffiths’ introduction into law was almost entirely coincidental.
“I worked in a small-medium sized science enterprise for 20 years. It just so happened that I ended up being the lawyer for the firm,” he says.
From there, Daryn went back to school to study law and accounting. He says his different start has been a great asset to his current work at Capon & Hubert Lawyers & Mediators.
His experience before entering law, Daryn says, has been a “monumental help” in his ability to assist the public.
“I’ve been where these [clients] have been,” he says.
“One of the primary advantages of Capon & Hubert is that [life] experience. It’s compassion through
previous life and legal experience. You probably won’t be able to come to us with a non-criminal matter that one of us hasn’t gone through already.
“We’ve got the advantages of working in a small legal firm. I think it’s the small ones that do the most decent work, but it’s also the work that I enjoy.
“I like working in boutique law firms. I particularly like being in a collegiate environment.”
Specialising in the sale and purchase of businesses/ franchises and residential conveyancing Daryn says he is also an expert in explaining complex retirement village contracts in simple terms.
Capon & Hubert Lawyers & Mediators, first floor 32-38 Townshend Street Phillip. Call 6152 9203 or visit chsol.com.au
ACT Carpet & Floor Cleaners services include carpet, tile and grout cleaning, flood restoration as well as upholstery cleaning and protection.
“We are one of the very few certified carpet cleaning companies in Canberra,” says director Frank Bartorilla.
“Doing the job well and making sure our customers are satisfied is our number one priority.
“We service all of the ACT as well as surrounding areas and pride ourselves on meeting important hygiene standards and providing a respectful service.”
Frank says he’s been in the industry for nine years.
ACT Carpet & Floor Cleaners has more than 150 fivestar Google rated reviews and Frank says providing quality services to the community is a passion.
In promoting their services ACT Carpet & Floor Cleaners gives out a bottle of stain remover and free
top ups with every job.
“For carpet cleaning, people can go online and get an instant quote,” he says.
“They don’t have to ring us up or anything, they just need to provide the number of rooms they want cleaned, advise if it includes the hallways and the stairs etcetera and our online calculator will give you a quote, it’s simple and it’s accurate.”
Frank says their online booking is a quick and easy process to navigate.
“Our team is very accommodating to meet our customers’ needs,” he says. “Customer service is our number one priority.”
Property and commercial solicitor Daryn Griffiths.
Before and after of an outdoor paver cleaning.
MEET OUR PAIN MANAGEMENT EXPERTS
Emil Terbio – Exercise Physiotherapist
Physiotherapist Emil comes to us with a wealth of physiotherapy experience and knowledge from the public hospital system and also private practice. Emil works closely with our team of Exercise Physiologists on a coordinated approach to improving your pain and overall wellbeing. Emil has a special interest in neurology and improving the lives of people living with neurological conditions. He’s also mad keen on soccer and will support you with all sports related injuries and injury prevention.
Sophie Bullock – Exercise Physiologist
Sophie has post graduate qualifications in hydrotherapy, and as a non-sports centred Exercise Physiologist, helps clients who struggle with engaging in exercise due to a lack of sports participation. Sophie’s goal is to improve clients health via our hydrotherapy program, gym instruction and in-home visits. Sophie also is known for her passion for working with children.
Sarah Solano – Exercise Physiologist
Sarah believes that exercise is the best medicine. She is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist with her degree in exercise physiology and rehabilitation. Previously Sarah was a swim teacher, personal trainer and an allied health assistant in the hydrotherapy field.
Jarrod Phillips – Exercise Physiologist
Jarrod is an Accredited Exercise Physiologist who graduated from the University of Canberra in 2024.
He has a passion for wanting to help those in need and aims to provide the best possible treatment and advice to each and every one of his clients.
Blake Dean – Exercise Physiologist
Blake has expertise in improving clients mobility and decreasing their pain through appropriate exercise. Blake delivers our ‘My Exercise’ program, targeting the relief of lower back and sciatic pain, shoulder and upper body concerns as well as leg, hip and ankle interventions – for those who do not qualify for physiotherapy-led GLAD programs. Blake provides individual & group exercise for younger people with a disability. Blake treats clients in-clinic or via our hydrotherapy program as well as attending your gym with you.
Jacqui Couldrick – Physiotherapist
Jacqui has a particular interest in hip and knee osteoarthritis. Jacqui delivers the GLAD program designed to reduce the need for joint replacements, or if a joint replacement is unavoidable, to prepare you thoroughly for surgery and recovery for day to day tasks. Jacqui is studying towards a PhD in the outcomes of the GLAD program.
Holly Hazlewood – Exercise Physiologist
Holly is a former sports journalist who believed so strongly in the power of exercise to heal and nurture that she undertook her 4 year degree in Exercise Physiology. Holly is be able to work with people directly to support them through their pain journey and regain independence and a joy for living again. Holly provides one on one and group exercise classes both on land and at our hydrotherapy centres to support people to gain freedom from chronic pain.
• Occupational Therapy – Assistance with the planning and modification of your home, workplace or car. Applications for NDIS, the Disability and Housing Support Pension, and also driving assessments.
• Physiotherapy – including the GLAD program for knee and hip osteoarthritis, sports injury prevention and rehabilitation, and pain condition support.
• Exercise Physiology – Individual exercise prescriptions, small group classes to increase strength and improve rehabilitation, strength and balance classes, hydrotherapy support.
By Jackie WARBURTON
This has been the year of pests and diseases.
There are fungal diseases that I’ve never seen before that are around because of the wet weather of the past few years, which looks to be continuing.
We have had a plague of different types of beetles from scarab beetle to citrus beetle and now I’ve seen, in great proportions, the pumpkin beetle. There are two types of pumpkin beetles. The ones with black markings on their backs are seen in our region. This beetle targets cucurbits in the vegetable patch such as pumpkins, cucumbers, melons and zucchinis.
It defoliates leaves in no time and damages the roots, stems and flowers. Remove it the moment it’s seen by dropping them into soapy water. Neem oil or insecticide with Spinosad as its main ingredient, such as Success Ultra, will work, and both products are all-natural.
Companion planting helps to repel beetles. The best-known plants to use are basil, borage or marigolds.
To keep this pest away for next season, plant garden beds with a high-nitrogen, green manure crop in the winter to balance the soil.
Clean up the spent crop in autumn, which will give the beetles nowhere to hide over winter and they’ll move on.
The cucurbits are also susceptible to powdery mildew at this time of the year. It’s a white powder look
Carpobrotus… two plants a square metre is a cost-effective way to cover a large area in a little time.
that can easily be seen on the leaf.
Large infestations should be cut away from the plant. Watering the soil and not the leaves prevents the mildew from spreading to other plants such as strawberries, dahlias and other vegetables.
An organic spray of ecofungicide will work. Remove old leaves from plants if needed to increase the air flow to reduce fungal infection reoccurring.
CARPOBROTUS, which is flowering now, is a native plant that grows with little care.
Although it is not endemic, it grows here and is not bothered by frosts. It is a prostrate creeping succulent and grows well over a wall or will spread along the ground.
If there is a large area to cover, two plants a square metre is a cost-effective way for covering a large area in a little time.
The main available flower colours are a magenta pink or a sweet buttery yellow. Both grow well outdoors.
If there is a sheltered spot in the garden or glasshouse, try Carpobotus mellei, which has a larger, fatter leaf and more blue, and a sweet pale pink flower.
Other low-growing Carpobrotus plants to try in the garden are Aptenias, Delospermas or Disphyllum Sunburn. They all have no problems with frosts and are drought tolerant when established.
Like all succulents, they need good drainage, so add a small amount of sharp sand to the hole before planting.
IT’S the last chance to plant autumn bulbs such as Colchicums or Sternbergers. When planting, a good guide is to plant bulbs twice as deep as the bulb is tall and the same distance apart. Bulbs can be planted en masse to give a better floral display.
jackwar@home.netspeed.com.au
Jottings…
• Sow more winter seeds to plant out in March.
• Fertilise autumn bulbs that are starting to grow.
• Fork around new plants to ensure the soil is not compacted.
The pumpkin beetle… targets pumpkins, cucumbers, melons and zucchinis. Photos: Jackie Warburton
ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
Baby Jane’s back… with a chill up the spine
By Helen MUSA
To readers of a certain age, the very mention of Baby Jane may send a chill up the spine.
For those who remember Bette Davis and Joan Crawford in the 1962 horror-thriller, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? the name conjures up one of the most celebrated villains of the screen, once ranked in the American Film Institute’s list of the 50 Best Villains of American Cinema.
Now director Ed Wightman has gone back to the original 1960 novel by American writer Henry Farrell and devised a stage play simply called Baby Jane, taking the stage at Canberra Repertory.
Like the movie, the play involves Baby Jane, a former famous child actress, tormenting her disabled older sister Blanche, who had been a Hollywood star – what could possibly go wrong?
Wightman, billed by Rep as “one of Canberra’s-own”, is one of our proudest products, an ANU Arts/Law graduate and local theatre luminary who, armed with a Canberra Rep scholarship, went to the London School of Academy of Drama and Music and won the David Suchet scholarship. He now has a busy career in Sydney direct-
ing, teaching at NIDA and writing.
“I’d always been fascinated by the film,” he tells me. “But on reading the credits I got even more interested in the novel behind it and found that Farrell had written a couple of other books and worked on turning Baby Jane into a stage play.” That never happened.
“Writing the play became my pandemic project, a lifeline for me during covid… I found that the script came up quickly, allowing me to create some frightening parts
but a vein of black comedy, too.”
“Most people know the title but not the story,” he says, explaining that the film’s notoriety was related to the reputed clash between Davis and Crawford. “Happily, we haven’t had any of that to deal with.”
Convinced that it would work well on stage, he looked around for potential producers and found Rep to be supportive of development workshops, eventually programming it for 2025.
This is Wightman’s sixth production for Rep and it was during a previous time there that several older actresses got into his ear and complained that there weren’t enough roles for them.
“So, I decided to come up with two challenging roles for older female actresses,” he says. Mind you, Louise Bennett, who plays Jane, Victoria Tyrrell Dixon, who plays Blanche, are not quite as old as Davis and Crawford, both aged 54 when they played them.
The attraction for a playwright-director is to be found in the psychological explorations of sibling rivalry and the horror elements. Wightman differs from Farrell in focusing all the action in the house. The two reclusive, often delusional sisters have cut themselves off from the world and are living in a Hollywood mansion not unlike the setting for Sunset Boulevard.
There are other characters in the novel/ play, including that of the sisters’ father who may or may not be real, but the focus is more on the two sisters.
They’ve been having fun in rehearsals because one of their cast, Michael Sparks, is a genuine American who’s been correcting Wightman’s small cultural lapses, such as using the word biscuit where cookies or cake would be more correct.
Wightman is adamant that this play is no slavish reproduction of the film, that it has more psychological realism and a bit less “arch” than the camped-up cult movie, so he’s been at pains to discourage both Bennett and Tyrrell Dixon from seeing the film, Davis and Crawford being such hard acts to follow.
And his ultimate purpose? As Rep is saying: “It’s designed to make you laugh, cry and jump out of your seat. Maybe even all at the same time.”
Baby Jane, Canberra Rep Theatre until March 8.
Director Ed Wightman… “The script came up quickly, allowing me to create some frightening parts but a vein of black comedy, too.
Louise Bennett in the title role of Baby Jane, a former famous child actress, tormenting her disabled older sister Blanche, who had been a Hollywood star.
The untold and untrue story of Diana
By Helen Musa
The People’s Princess takes centre stage in Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story, premiering at the Street Theatre soon.
Rather like another hilarious Edinburgh Fringe hit recently seen here, Garry Starr’s Classic Penguins, this Diana show hits well below the belt and the production is proudly advertising (it’s probably untrue like most of what’s in the play) that The Guardian complained it contained “too many penis jokes”.
The brainchild of comedians Linus Karp and Joseph Martin, it quickly establishes the facts that Prince Charles and Princess Diana were married, featuring the big wedding and that phone call between Charles and Camilla.
But just as quickly, it jumps away from reality, preferring to create a what-if scenario which shows Diana as the gay icon she became.
Karp plays Diana speaking to us from the afterlife, glass in hand elegantly out of control with weapons hidden in her “revenge dress”, while Martin live-voices cardboard cutouts of Charles and Camilla.
Thanks to modern technology, other celebrities appear by video, notably Geri Allen as the Queen plotting Diana’s downfall, Zina Badram as God and the Broadway star of Dianna the Musical, Jeanna de Waal, appearing as an alternate
Diana, a la Marvel.
As well, the audience gets to plan an active part. Some are given new names; others are drawn in physically. Be very afraid.
I caught up with the Swedish-born Karp by WhatsApp to London just after he and Martin had returned from the US touring another one of their shows, Gwyneth Goes Skiing, about actress Gwyneth Paltow (another princess) having been sued for skiing into a retired optometrist in 2016.
“That was a very, very ridiculous case,” Karp opines, adding, “I love ridiculous. I
like to live as ridiculously as possible.”
And not just that.
“I’d love to be a cat,” he says in reference to another Edinburgh smash hit from his fecund imagination, How to Live a Jellicle Life: Life Lessons from the 2019 Hit Movie Musical Cats. You get the idea.
Karp tells me he’s lived in the UK since 2013 and has perceived a strong sense of comedy throughout England.
“I feel that people have a sense of humour here more than in some other places.”
“Of course, there is a Swedish sense of humour, but Swedes can be very unfunny and people are quite seriously fond of humour in the UK.”
“We take stories that aren’t funny and make them funny,” he says of his own brand of comedy.
Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story is probably a good example of that and as a famous gay icon, the star is a fitting vehicle for his favourite kind of queer comedy.
Besides which, the mother of his partner, Martin, is a big Diana fan, so wherever they go, they try and buy her Diana merchandise as presents.
Of course it’s all for fun and Karp as Lady Di, is seen speaking to us from the other side, presumably heaven, dressed to the teeth, swishing around her wine, donning a tiara, everything you’d hope for.
“Diana did have a role to play in the queer community,” Karp says. “We celebrate her as a queer icon and a groundbreaking activist who took HIV patients by the hand and hugged them.
“That was long before my time, but I know how she affected the queer community… people who worked for HIV-related charities tell me how powerful Diana’s role was, so this is seriously ridiculous comedy.
“Comedy is always based in reality – if you can make people laugh, then you can talk to them.”
Diana: the Untold and Untrue Story, The Street Theatre, February 27.
Marchers take to the lake
International Mother Language Day (February 21) will be marked in Canberra on February 23 with an annual walk around Lake Burley Griffin.
With the 2025 theme Languages Matter, this is the Silver Jubilee celebration of International Mother Language Day, officially gazetted by UNESCO in 1999 in recognition of the date when Bengali-speaking students, demonstrating for their language, were gunned down in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Now it’s a thriving focal point for linguistic diversity and its role in fostering understanding. The walkers will this year be accompanied by songs from around the world played on the National Carillon.
After gathering at the International Flag Display below Questacon car park, where free, themed T-shirts will be distributed, the language lovers will be waved off by the Zambian Culture Dancing Group and the Prosperous Mountain Lion Dancers before crossing King’s Avenue Bridge. The walk ends near the National Workers Memorial with a sausage sizzle and more cultural performances.
More from imlm.21feb@gmail.com, call 0434 436 315 or visit imlm21.org.au
Linus Karp as Princess Diana… speaking from the afterlife, glass in hand, elegantly out of control with weapons hidden in her “revenge dress”. Photo: Dave Bird
Zambian Culture Dancing Group.
DINING / Lunetta Trattoria, Red Hill
The views from the top of Red Hill are breathtaking and can now be enjoyed from two new dining venues
– Lunetta Trattoria (downstairs and more casual) and Lunetta (upstairs and more elevated to fine dining).
I haven’t been to Lunetta (yet) but have enjoyed lunch at the trattoria twice and each time was over the moon with the décor, service, food, wine and atmosphere.
Lunetta Trattoria celebrates sharing and lets diners create their own charcuterie or cheese platter from the antipasti section. The burrata ($18) was exquisite with its solid shell and creamy interior. It was a beautiful consistency and not too thin.
The beef carpaccio ($26) arrived underneath a mound of very fine parmigiano covering virtually all thin slices of meat. I wondered if it was too much, but I was wrong. This is a wonderful dish, and the carpaccio marries well with picked fennel, Caesar mayo and charred lettuce.
Another exceptional offering is the light chicken parfait, beautifully plated and a true feast for the eyes ($26). It arrived with a quenelle of caramelised onion and slices of salted cucumber for added texture.
Mains were impressive. The pasture-raised half chicken was created with beer brine and cooked in Lunetta Trattoria’s large wood-fired oven. It was super moist, loaded with deliciousness and arrived with a rich, full-bodied jus, dollops of fresh, vibrant watercress verde, and a juicy half lemon ($28).
With the chicken, we indulged in amazing fried crushed new potatoes. Lovely and salty and fabulous with leaves of fried sage, the dish was elevated with Parmigiano Reggiano ($16).
Equally brilliant was the broccolini, with
whipped lemon buffalo ricotta, salted garlic almond and a tasty shallot dressing ($18).
These two dishes highlight Lunetta Trattoria’s ability to create Italian-inspired cuisine blending traditional techniques with contemporary flair.
Pasta specials are worth exploring. On my second visit, this was a large pasta, woodfired baked alla vodka with spicy Nduja (pork sausage) paste ($32).
Lunetta Trattoria has a massive open kitchen. Diners perched at the bar can watch staff plating up dishes and desserts or slicing meats on an impressive, hand-operated Omas Heritage vintage-style slicer (craftsman-built). It’s a mighty machine.
We don’t always indulge in desserts but got a
WINE / National Wine Festival
sneak peek of a couple passing by and couldn’t resist. The caramel flan was perfection ($18). The chocolate ganache, grilled cherries, lemon thyme and whipped cream ($22) a dream dessert, with stunning flavours. We agreed the tiramisu wasn’t the best we have had ($20). It wasn’t as firm as we would have liked.
The wine offering at Lunetta Trattoria is well thought through. Our textural 2023 Spinifex Vermentino, from the Barossa Valley, was $70 a bottle.
Service is friendly and attentive, and nothing is too difficult.
Curtain up on June’s national wine festival
I was recently invited to a function that introduced participants to a new annual tourism event to be based in Canberra, the National Wine Festival of Australia.
The four-day festival will be held in June, celebrating Australian winemaking and marking the 50th anniversary of the National Wine Show of Australia.
The function was attended by media representatives, embassy staff and a bucket load of Canberra wine people. Also present were staff from the Canberra Glassworks, who were commissioned to produce the lovely trophies that the winners receive, a distinctive feather in Canberra’s cap.
Federal Tourism and Trade Minister Don Farrell gave a speech where he emphasised the re-growth of Australian wine exports, especially to China, that followed on from five meetings he has had with his Chinese counterpart.
The senator also lauded the re-opening of the export market for Australian crayfish and gave an optimistic spin to growth of future quality wine exports.
He said the new festival is well positioned to become a flagship event on the national calendar.
The Minister’s optimism
exports to the US was especially noticeable, with a decline of $38 million to $325 million.
In the face of these statistics, events that showcase Australian wine are a positive.
National Wine Show of Australia chair Andy Gregory said the June festival would occupy a unique position in the tourism landscape: “It is the only true representation of every Australian winegrowing region – a one-stop shop to taste and learn about the very best of Australian wine,” he said.
was confirmed by figures released by Wine Australia in late January. It reported that in the 12 months to the end of December, Australian wine exports increased by 34 per cent in value to $2.55 billion and by 7 per cent in volume to 649 million litres.
The increase in value was a result of high levels of shipments to mainland China between April and December, after tariffs on Australian bottled wine were removed at the end of March. In those nine months, 83 million litres of wine, worth $902 million, were exported to mainland China.
However, the outlook is not all wine and roses.
Australian wine exports to the rest of the world during the 12 months to December declined by 13 per cent in value to $1.64 billion and 7 per cent in volume to 565 million litres. The decline in
“We see the National Wine Festival as a powerful platform on which to strengthen Australia’s global reputation as a world-class wine producer. It’s a natural evolution of the National Wine Show in our 50th year.”
At the function, we were lucky enough to taste some former National Wine Show winning wines.
My favourite on the night won the Cabernet Blends Trophy for 2023: the Yarra Yerring 2021 Agincourt Cabernet Malbec. This is a 80 per cent cabernet sauvignon, 20 per cent Malbec blend that currently sells for $115 a bottle.
It is everything I look for in a red wine: it has a distinctive nose of violets and red fruit and wonderful complexity on taste.
I tasted blueberries on the palate, a match for the blueberries with whipped ricotta served as one of the snacks at the function.
The finish was spicy and had enough acid to know that this wine would last for quite some time, at least for another two years. This wine is deserving of the numerous medals it has won and shows that the processes adopted by the National Wine Show picks some outstanding winners.
Half chicken.
Photo: Wendy Johnson Caramel flan.
Photo: Wendy Johnson
A Canberra Glassworks National Wine Show of Australia trophy from last year… commissioned to produce trophies for the National Wine Festival of Australia.
STREAMING
The mostly, nearly true story of a health scam
“Can’t wait until Netflix gets on to this” is a phrase that’s almost guaranteed to be plastered throughout the social media comment section of any realworld event with major intrigue these days.
From the disastrous AI Willy Wonka scam factory in Glasgow to the Oceangate submarine disaster, the world’s top streaming platform is never far behind with a shiny new show or doco to cash in on items of global interest.
It’s highly likely those comments were also out in force when the scandal surrounding health guru Annabelle Gibson first hit the news.
For those who weren’t tuned in, Gibson made international headlines when she was exposed for faking a cancer diagnosis.
Not only did the famous Australian blogger fake cancer to build an online following, but she went as far as to claim she was treating the cancer through a healthy diet and alternative medicine therapies.
This scam amassed her millions of followers and millions of dollars, cash she would reportedly use to lease a luxury car, travel overseas and purchase designer clothes while also claiming she was donating to numerous charities.
Gibson even went on to sign deals for her own book and app that were supposed to help people.
The scam knew no bounds and it had real impacts on those who thought they could treat their own cancer with this pseudoscience.
Netflix’s new documentary, Apple Cider Vinegar explores how far it went and how she was exposed.
Despite some bold, stylistic storytelling the documentary does shy a little away from selling itself as 100 per cent accurate.
“This is a true story based on a lie,” the audience is told directly by Kaitlyn Dever who plays Gibson in the show’s first episode.
“Some names have been changed to protect the innocent. Belle Gibson has not been paid for the recreation of her story.”
The show also says it’s “inspired by” the book written by the journalists who first exposed Gibson.
While generally, the story here is true,
Netflix may be trying to muddy the waters around the accuracy of specific details following the controversy of Baby Reindeer.
That series, which tells the story of a man’s real-life experience with an alleged serial stalker, became one of the biggest shows of last year.
While the foundation of the plot was true, certain elements were later revealed to be changed as a way of “capturing the feeling” that creator and writer Richard Gadd says he was experiencing as a result of the woman stalking him.
Gadd’s account is ultimately an “authentic” retelling despite some creative liberties, but the show did sell itself as a “true story” at its very beginning and has since sparked debate about the core details. It also resulted in a multi-million dollar lawsuit from the real woman who stalked Gadd who says her reputation has been destroyed by this “true story”.
Netflix has stood by the creator of Baby Reindeer, but it’s interesting the fallout of all this controversy seems to have made Netflix pull back a little bit on how boldly it markets these shows as “true”.
Is Apple Cider Vinegar worth your time though? Definitely.
This is a sleek offering that comes wrapped in only six episodes. As easy to knock over as it is to get caught up in.
ARTS IN THE CITY
TURNING to another big homegrown addition to the streaming world this month, the newest Mad Max film has just hit Binge. This one, called Furiosa, stars Anya Taylor-Joy as the titular war car creator who becomes caught between two tyrants fighting for control of a radioactive, postapocalyptic Australia.
It follows on from 2014’s Fury Road in which Aussie director George Miller revamped the series of films with a new cast including Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron. Taylor-Joy plays a younger version of Theron’s character who became a fan favourite.
Despite great reviews and the franchise’s mighty place in pop culture, the film bombed at the box office when it was released last May.
Will Furiosa fare better in the streaming world though?
It would be a shame to see an Aussie blockbuster of this scale and with stunts this impressive not only suffer at the box office but also on home screens as well.
Let’s hope its arrival to streaming helps get it into gear.
A pop invasion
The newest show from John Waters, featuring Stewart D’Arrietta and the Chartbusters, is Radio Luxembourg, a look at the British Pop Invasion that changed the world of modern music. The Street Theatre, February 28.
Harpist Alice Giles and pianist Arnan Wiesel are cooking up a six-part concert series to be called Harmonic Curves. It begins with Wiesel and Aaron Chew playing
from John Waters
romantic and 20th century “four hands” works by Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, Ligeti, Stravinsky, Ligeti and JS Bach/Kurtag. Wesley Music Centre February 23
In a burst of nostalgia, Canberra Philharmonic Society is reviving Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s family-friendly musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, with Tim Dal Cortivo in the title role. Erindale Theatre, February 27-March 15.
Rebus Theatre is branching out with an ambitious new program, Stages of Empathy, to be directed by Sammy Moynihan. The free,
theatre-based training program is designed to help community groups become more accessible for autistic people and people with intellectual and psychosocial disabilities in the ACT, NSW and Victoria.
Canberra Bach Ensemble, directed by Andrew Koll with the orchestra led by Stephen Freeman, will be back with Cantatas BWV 111, 92, 73 & 72, St Christopher’s Cathedral, Manuka, February 22-23.
ANU Film Group is back after a long pause for hail remediation work with a massive program of 56 films, including almost all the Oscar-nominated films and a free Indian film festival in March, and lots of Canberra premieres. ANU’s Kambri Cultural Centre. More at anufg.org.au
Kaitlyn Dever as disgraced health guru Annabelle Gibson in Apple Cider Vinegar.
John Waters, third left, with the Radio Luxembourg band.
HOROSCOPE PUZZLES
By Joanne Madeline Moore
ARIES (Mar 21 – Apr 20)
Mighty Mars (your patron planet) finally turns direct on Monday. Which is especially welcome news for Aries who have been tired, sick, injured or frustrated over the last eleven weeks that Mars has been retrograde. So it’s time to be bold and brave as you take a smart calculated risk and morph into the adventurous Aries you were born to be. Nothing ventured, nothing gained as you break down barriers and charge at life with plenty of fiery abandon!
TAURUS (Apr 21 – May 21)
With five planets powering through Pisces (including the New Moon), being flexible is the key to a successful week. If you are too stubborn and unyielding in your opinions, then others will just stop listening to what you have to say. And if you are too slow off the mark (and hesitant to take action), then others will streak ahead of you. So your motto is from fellow Taurean, actress Shirley MacLaine: “Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb. It’s where all the fruit is.”
GEMINI (May 22 – June 21)
You’re keen to connect with work colleagues, clients and/or customers as five planets activate your career zone. It’s a terrific time to converse and communicate, text and tweet. People are waiting to hear what you’ve got to say as you brainstorm your creative ideas. And proactive Mars finally moves forward on Monday, so stop procrastinating and start delivering! Be inspired by birthday great, writer and illustrator Dr Seuss: “Only you can control your future.”
CANCER (June 22 – July 23)
Cancer folk can be super-cautious… spending too much time at home in your cosy comfort zone. Especially over the last few weeks, when Mars has been reversing through your sign and you may have felt tired, cranky and unmotivated. This week the Sun, New Moon, Mercury, Saturn and Neptune are all activating your traveland-adventure zone, and Mars moves forward on Monday. So it’s time to crawl out of your Crab cave and be much more adventurous.
LEO (July 24 – Aug 23)
This week’s stars increase your restless side and your independent streak. Work projects are favoured, as you connect with innovative friends and creative colleagues. Clever Cats will resist the urge to be bossy and self-indulgent. You’re in the mood to take a professional risk or go on a grand adventure, but avoid spilling secrets, spreading gossip and saying the first thing that pops into your head. Sometimes silence is golden, and some things are best left unsaid.
VIRGO (Aug 24 – Sept 23)
Don’t be too set in the way you think the week should develop. With Mars and Uranus shaking things up, expect changes or surprises that will keep you on your toes! And – with Mars finally moving forward on Monday – group activities are set to improve as you all work together to achieve a pleasing outcome. A cherished goal or dream could also get the green light, after much worrying, waiting and anticipating. The New Moon focus is on relationships.
LIBRA (Sept 24 – Oct 23)
After nearly three months, Mars stops reversing through your career zone on Monday. So your Libran motivation will slowly return and stalled work projects should gradually pick up pace. Then Friday’s New Moon stimulates your wellbeing zone, so it’s a wonderful weekend to start a new diet, reboot an exercise program or begin a meditation practice. And remember – good health is the true wealth. With Venus visiting your relationship zone, love is in the air.
SCORPIO (Oct 24 – Nov 22)
Start planning your next weekend escape or holiday, as Mars moves forward in your travel-and-adventure zone. Opportunities for New Moon growth could come from a child, lover or friend as you realise who has your best interests at heart. It’s also a good time to express your creative side and appreciate the talents of others. Your motto is from movie star (and birthday great) Elizabeth Taylor: “There are so many doors to be opened, and I’m not afraid to look behind them.”
SAGITTARIUS (Nov 23 – Dec 21)
Mars moves forward on Monday, so don’t worry about things you can’t control. Be proactive about projects where you can influence the outcome, as your motivation and mojo gradually return. But are you having problems with a family member or housemate? The more you communicate and cooperate (with plenty of patience and compassion), the more positive the relationship will be. But it’s up to you to swallow your Sagittarian pride and make the first move.
CAPRICORN (Dec 22 – Jan 20)
A partnership should gradually improve, as Mars moves forward in your relationship zone on Monday. The more proactive you are about communicating clearly, the better. Then Friday’s New Moon lights up your conversation, education and neighbourhood zones, so it’s a fabulous week to focus, plan, study, organise and strategise – especially involving joint ventures and projects within your local community. Singles – love and family are linked.
1 Which shortened Latin term means “for the time being”? (3,3)
8 What is an orchestral composition forming the prelude to an opera? (8)
9 Name a private or personal concern. (6)
10 Which persons fix windows with glass? (8)
11 What is a fleet of warships? (6)
12 Name a coastal resort in SE France, on the Riviera. (4)
13 Who wrote The War of the Worlds, and The Time Machine, H G ...? (5)
16 Name an Australian Aboriginal rock singer, Archie ... (5)
19 What is a colloquial term for an earlier pound note? (4)
21 When one circulates counterfeit money, one does what? (6)
22 Which dog originated in Newfoundland, Canada? (8)
23 Name a renowned US band leader, Woody ... (6)
24 Name a former English colony on the Atlantic coast of North America (8)
25 To have brought forward any point for discussion, is to have done what? (6)
2 Name another term for an umpire. (7)
3 What is physical exertion, especially when painful? (7)
4 Daniel who, was known as “Mad Dog”? (6)
5 Name the owner of a rural property on which sheep or cattle are pastured. (7)
6 Which contagious disease resembles scarlet fever? (7)
7 Name a title applied to Jesus. (7)
13 Name an English crime novelist, Edgar ... (7)
14 Who was an Australian painter and sculptor, born in Russia, George ...? (7)
15 What are sudden strong winds also called? (7)
17 Toronto is the capital of which province in Southern Canada? (7)
18 Name an alternative term for butchery. (7)
20 Name a county in north-eastern England. (6)
BelconnenJunior BowlsAcademy
Do you have children or grandchildren aged between 8-18 years of age who are looking for a new sport/hobby?
Why not try lawn bowls?
Parents and grandparents are more than welcome to come along and give it a go too! Your
AQUARIUS (Jan 21 – Feb 19)
After eleven long weeks, Mars finally turns direct on Monday, so projects requiring initiative, energy, motivation and enthusiasm should start to pick up speed. Which is particularly good news for Aquarian folk who’ve been feeling like their life has stagnated (or even gone backwards), especially involving work or health. Friday’s New Moon signals a fresh financial chapter as you reboot your budget, pick up extra work or start a savings plan.
PISCES (Feb 20 – Mar 20)
Dynamic Mars turns direct on Monday, which encourages you to be proactive about a situation involving a child, a romantic relationship, a sporting activity or a creative project. With the Sun, New Moon, Mercury, Saturn and Neptune all illuminating your sign, you’re keen to please others. But avoid the temptation to say ‘yes’ to everyone and everything, like a compliant doormat. You may find you’ve bitten off more than you can comfortably chew!
Copyright Joanne Madeline Moore 2024
Lawn Bowls is a great sport for junior participants with varying athletic and physical abilities. Lawn Bowls provides an opportunity for junior participants to develop physically, socially and emotionally with a wide variety of skills transferable to non-athletic environments, such as leadership, teamwork and concentration. Lawn bowls is a game for everybody, a game for life!
Belconnen Junior Lawn Bowls Academy is pleased to invite boys and girls aged 8-18 years to “Come and Try” at Belconnen Bowling Club, Beetaloo St, Hawker. Essential items are a hat, flat sole shoes/ bare feet. Bowls and supervision/instruction provided. Go on, give it a go!
Contact the Junior Bowls Coordinator on 0409 392 758 or Belconnen Bowling Club 6254 2157 today to arrange an introductory session. All FREE! It’s fun for everyone!
