DELIGHTED to report some positive news. Canberra has bucked the national trend with a big fall in child protection and abuse cases; while across the country the number of children under protection rose marginally, in Canberra it fell by 25 per cent.

Of course, that still meant there were more than 1600 of our kids receiving protection. And an average of five children a year are left without a mother whose death was caused by domestic violence. But at least the trend was in the right direction.

However, the current system that has women and children leaving the family home for a refuge from a violent partner seems like double jeopardy. Surely it’s the basher who should be forcibly escorted to a re-education centre.

MORE good news – which is probably related: we’re now drinking less alcohol than at any time in the past 50 years. According to the ABS we’re now down to 2.1 standard drinks a day for every Canberran 15 and over. That probably reflects the ageing of the baby boomer generation. Sadly, too many younger folk have turned to a terrible mind-bending alternative – ice – which makes the consumer even more aggressive than booze.

And this week Chinese authorities caught an Australian drug smuggler, one Peter Gardner, with 30 kilos of it in his luggage as he tried to board a plane from Guangzhou. Once again, it seems, we’ll be faced with the capital punishment issue. Even for those of us totally opposed to it, it’s hard to feel any sympathy for the thugs who would knowingly profit from the destruction of our kids’ lives.

CLIMATE change continues to gather pace with the Weather Bureau warning that a prolonged drought and a shocking bushfire season await. But at least it seems some terrific progress is being made on the renewable energy front.

Canberra company, IT Power is analysing a new generation of lithium-ion batteries with the capacity to transform the sector. Company boss, Simon Troman says: “If we can nail this down, it means that the value of solar on the grid is no longer just in the sunshine hours but in the whole 24 hours of the day.”

Let’s hope the news filters through to Federal Environment Minister Greg Hunt in his parallel universe.

THE Greens will no doubt welcome it – not least their new Federal leader, Richard Di Natale (Richard who?) – whom the retiring Christine Milne sprang on the party this week. He’s being welcomed by the Press Gallery as someone who will negotiate with PM Tony Abbott.

Really? Some of us can recall another minor party leader similarly welcomed: Meg Lees of the Australian Democrats for the Howard/Costello GST negotiation. That didn’t turn out so well. Meg left the Democrats soon after, then the Democrats departed the political scene forever.

SPEAKING of Peter Costello, can it be that as Tony Abbott recovers in the polls Malcolm Turnbull realises that he should have made his leadership bid when the Gallery was counting the PM down and out? Instead he did a Costello and waited for the leadership to be handed on a platter. Anthony Albanese, please take note.

robert@robertmacklin.com